12 Days with Naruto
by Goldenang
Summary: When Naruto decides to woo Sasuke by reenacting the 12 days of Christmas for her, it is a Christmas miracle that he survives to the last day, but will Sasuke actually accept his crazy attempt at love? Narusasu Femsasu
1. Partridge in a Pear Tree

**Partridge in a Pear Tree**

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

"What the hell is this?" Sasuke growled.

Sasuke had walked towards her apartment after a long day at the library studying for finals only to find a raw bird skewered on a stick lying in front of her door.

She stepped cautiously towards the bizarre object and spotted an envelope lying under it. She nudged the dead bird off the envelope careful not to get anything gross on her hand. On the front of the envelope, the words "to my true love" were written in sloppy cursive.

"Is this a joke?" she mumbled. Her eye was beginning to twitch in frustration.

With a growl, she flipped the envelope over and pulled out a small card that was inside.

_On the first day of Christmas, _

_My true love gave to me_

_A Partridge in a Pear Tree_

Okay, now her eye was twitching full force. This was crazy. Who would do something like this? Sasuke knew she was not the most likeable person on campus, but she never thought she had made any enemies who hated her enough to pull a stunt like this.

"Forget it," she yelled. She threw the envelope aside and kicked the skewered bird to the side.

Whatever was going on, she would wait until the end of finals to try to figure it out. There was no time in her crazy schedule to track down some crazy psycho. She barely had the energy to throw her bags down, take off her shoes, and crash on her bed.

Sasuke had been so tired that she did not remember what had happened when she woke up the next morning. When her alarm went off, bright and early, she hit it off the nightstand.

Finals suck.

With one last groan, Sasuke pulled herself out of bed. _What day is today?_ A quick look at her calendar revealed that it was Tuesday. If today was Tuesday, that meant she had an English final in the afternoon.

_Coffee. _The fist thing she needed to do was get some coffee. The one good thing about sleeping in your clothes was that you could head down to the coffee shop only having to run a comb through your hair and throw on some shoes.

When she opened her apartment door, she shuffled into the hallway without noticing anything. In less than 5 minutes, she arrived at the small café across the street from her apartment building.

"Morning, Sasuke," the barista greeted when she came through the front door.

Sasuke had been coming to this café since the first day she moved into this apartment three years ago at the beginning of her freshman year. It was a small shop, but it definitely had a comfortable charm to it. Over the years, she had gotten to know the handful of workers who ran the place.

"Morning," she replied with a quiet, groggy voice.

The barista chuckled. "I take it you need a strong shot of caffeine," he said playfully. "Should I put it in coffee or should I just inject it straight into your bloodstream?"

"Hn," she grumbled intelligently. "Coffee."

"Alright. Alright. I'll get you some nice, strong coffee," he chuckled as he walked over to the coffee machines on the other side of the café.

The two or three minutes it took for him to make the coffee felt like forever to Sasuke. The idea of injecting caffeine into her system was starting not to sound that bad.

"Here you go," he said, holding a steaming cup of something (Sasuke did not care what it was at the moment). "One Uzumaki special."

"Thanks, Naruto," she mumbled, practically ripping his arm off to get the coffee.

"MMMmmmmm," she moaned as she took a sip of the most amazing thing in the world, at least at that moment.

Naruto sat down at the table with Sasuke and waited for her to get a jolt of caffeine before he would speak again. He knew enough about Sasuke to know she would not be conscious of the outside world until she got some coffee into her system.

There was no one else in the shop right now because most of the clients of this café were business workers, who would already be at work by this late in the morning, so Naruto was free to sit and chat with Sasuke for a while.

Despite the proximity of Sasuke's apartment to campus, not a lot of students lived there because they were pretty expensive apartments, too expensive for most "starving students."

But, Sasuke was far from poor. Her parents had been wealthy international business managers. They had died when Sasuke was in elementary school and had left her alone with her older brother. Thankfully, her brother was old enough to take of custody of her and the company and smart enough to keep the business profitable and thus able to provide well for Sasuke.

Sasuke was now at one of the best universities in the country and arguably one of the best students at the school. She was studying business in order to help her brother run the company in the future.

Naruto had learned a lot about Sasuke over the years. It had taken some time, but eventually he had gotten her to open up to him and start telling him about her past.

Finally, Sasuke sat up straighter in her chair, which was the sign that she was awake enough to carry on a conversation.

"So," Naruto started, "how was your day yesterday? Anything interesting happen?"

"No," she answered with a much clearer voice. "I was just studying at the library all day."

"You have one final today, two tomorrow, and one on Friday?" he asked, trying to remember what she had told him yesterday when he had asked.

"Not quite," she said after taking another sip of her coffee. "I have one today, none tomorrow, two on _Thursday_, and one on Friday."

"Eh, I was close," he whined.

Sasuke chuckled lightly. "Not close enough."

"You're such a bastard sometimes," he announced and punched her playfully in the shoulder.

"Hey, it's not my fault you are not smart enough to remember something as simple as the date of four things," Sasuke shot back.

When they first met, insults like these would have been malicious and serious, but now they had turned their banter into a kind of game between them.

Naruto always teased Sasuke about being an antisocial nerd, while Sasuke would point out Naruto's idiocy. However, they both knew their insults were not true. Well, at least now they did.

Naruto knew that Sasuke was just antisocial because a lot of people had left her as she was growing up because of both death and abandonment. She was always afraid that anyone she let close would just leave and so she made no effort to connect with anyone. However, Naruto's persistence had made it past her barriers and inside he found a very sweet and very broken little girl, who desperately needed and, though she would never admit it, even wanted a friend.

On the other hand, Sasuke knew that Naruto was not truly stupid. Naruto just did not have the resources to make it through to the end of high school, let alone college. He was an orphan and despite his determination and cheerfulness, he just did not have the money to continue with his education. However, he had worked hard to get a find job and finally found one here at the café. Now, he was the co-owner.

"Hey, uh…" Naruto trailed off and rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Did … Are you sure that nothing special happened yesterday?"

"No," Sasuke said skeptically. Naruto was acting weird, even for him. "Why?"

"Eh hehe, well, I uh was just … I mean it is … strange that nothing happened at all," Naruto rambled awkwardly.

Sasuke frowned at him. _What is he up to? _She went over yesterday in her head to try and remember if anything weird had happened.

Suddenly, she gasped.

"What? What?" Naruto asked anxiously.

"Ugh," she groaned and slammed her head onto the table. "I must have been blocking it out of my memory."

"WHAT?" Naruto yelled.

Sasuke looked at him strangely. "Some psycho left a dead chicken on a stick in front of my door."

"It wasn't a chicken!" Naruto shouted, but quickly covered his mouth.

"What did you say," Sasuke growled.

"Eh heh heh, well, I would just think that a chicken would be too … boney to … stick on a stick and …. Uh …" Naruto stopped talking when he realized that Sasuke was not buying his excuse at all and was now glaring heatidly at him.

"Naruto," she said dangerously sweetly. "Were you the one who did that?"

Naruto started sweating. This was not good. He started mumbling incoherently. It was very difficult to find something to say that would not end up badly for him

"I can't believe you would pull a prank like that! Especially right now! You know how important finals are to my future! How could you do something so stupid!" Sasuke was fuming. She did not have the time to deal with this.

Before Naruto could say anything, Sasuke had stormed out of the café.

"It was not supposed to be stupid," Naruto whispered to the empty room. "It was supposed to be romantic."

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


	2. Turtle Doves

**Two turtle doves**

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

"Not again," Sasuke groaned.

Once again she had come home from the library to find something strange at her doorstep.

This time, there was a cage with two white doves and two turtles. On the front of the cage was the same envelope as before.

_To my true love_

_On the second day of Christmas,_

_My true love game to me_

_Two Turtle doves_

Did Naruto want to be killed? He knew she was busy this week. She sighed deeply. Maybe, maybe he was just trying to lighten the mood with his ridiculous interpretations of the 12 days of Christmas. For now, she would just believe that, since it was too difficult to be mad at him right now.

"What am I supposed to do with these guys?" Sasuke mumbled. She picked them up carefully. She may not have been happy about receiving them, but she couldn't just let them die.

She went over to the back balcony of her porch and let the two doves go. They would probably be fine on their own. Birds are wild creatures even if they have been in captivity for a while.

"I suppose I can't just let you guys go like that," she said to the two turtles. "I'll check the internet to see what to do with you guys."

She placed all her books down on her desk and put the cage carefully next to her laptop. "First, I'll have to figure out what kind of turtle you guys are."

After a quick google search, she found out that they were "Baby red ear slider turtles" and should eat natural plants or bugs. "Well, I don't have any bugs lying around the house, so I hope some lettuce will do for now. I will drop you guys off with Naruto tomorrow and that idiot can figure out what to do for you guys."

Sasuke walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bag of lettuce from the fridge before returning to her room to feed the turtles. She sat down on her desk chair and placed the cage on her lap. Slowly she lifted the door to the cage and reached inside with a handful of lettuce.

One of the turtles shrank back to the opposite corner of the cage, but the other crawled slowly, but deliberately towards her hand. The braver turtle reached out its head and snapped at a leaf of the lettuce from her hand.

Quicker than Sasuke thought possible for a turtle, the brave one had eaten all the lettuce in her hand. When there was no food left, the brave one nudged its head against her fingers.

"Okay. That was kind of cute," Sasuke said with a smirk. "You want some more?"

After a few minutes of feeding the brave turtle, the shy turtle decided it was hungry and cautiously crawled over to Sasuke's hand. "Finally decided I am not a threat, huh?" Sasuke said gently to the scared creature. She tossed some lettuce leaves towards the shy turtle and watched as it slowly nibbled on the food.

Slowly, she reached her finger out towards the shy turtle. It snapped at her finger and Sasuke was just barely able to pull her finger away in time. "Still don't trust me, eh?" Sasuke said softly. "I understand. Trust is a dangerous thing."

Sasuke watched the turtles munch on the lettuce she had dropped. The brave turtle was hovering around the shy one, occasionally eating some lettuce, but primarily watching the shy one eat.

The strange interaction between the two turtles made Sasuke chuckle because they reminded her of the relationship between Naruto and herself. Naruto had been the one to come up and start to talk to her at the café. He had continued to hover around her and bug her for months. Little by little, Sasuke had started occasionally responding to his questions and over an even longer time she had even started asking some questions of her own.

"Naruto Jr. you should be patient with Sasuke Jr. It will take some time for her to get used to you," Sasuke chided gently.

Then, she smacked herself on the forehead for her actions. "I must be burned out from studying. I am talking to turtles and naming them after Naruto and myself." She sighed. "I really shouldn't have named you guys. Now, I don't know that I can just throw you out. Besides, I don't even know your genders. Wouldn't it be great to find out that Naruto Jr. was a girl, heh."

"Ugh, I really need to go to bed," Sasuke groaned. "I'm starting to lose my mind." She went over to her closet and changed into some pajamas. As she crawled in to bed, she glanced over at the turtles in the cage on her desk. "Good night," she whispered before turning out the light and going to sleep.

The next morning, Sasuke's alarm clock was barely able to wake her up. She was exhausted from all the studying, but at least she did not have a final today. She rolled out of bed and took a nice long shower before walking into the kitchen to get some more food for the turtles.

"Morning, guys," she said as she tossed some more lettuce into the cage. "Today, we have to go speak to the idiot who left you guys here without any food or water. He will have to figure out what you guys need to live."

After throwing on some warm clothes, Sasuke picked up the cage and headed towards the café. "He had better take responsibility for leaving you guys on my doorstep," she growled. "Or else he is dead."

"NARUTO!" Sasuke shouted as she barged into the café. "Where are you, you looser!"

Sasuke heard a crash from the back of the café. She rushed towards the sound and found Naruto on the floor behind the counter with an enormous box of sugar on top of him. He was coughing from the weight of the box on his lungs and the mist of sugar floating around him.

"Sasuke? *cough*cough* What's wrong? *cough* Why are you yelling?" Naruto managed to spit out through his coughing.

"You're fine. Get up and take care of these turtles," Sasuke said, slamming the turtle cage on top of the counter.

"Huh?" Naruto groaned. The box may have only been full of sugar, but it was pretty heavy. Also, he had hit the floor pretty hard when he fell.

"These turtles," Sasuke said, pointing to the cage. "You left them on my doorstep last night. Is that right?"

"Uh …. Yeah," Naruto said gingerly. He was not sure how much trouble he was in yet. After Sasuke had snapped at him yesterday, he was not sure whether it was a good idea to continue with his plan or not, but he had never been one to give up easily. All he could do was keep moving forward with his plan and hope that Sasuke would understand.

"Did you even think about how I was supposed to take care of them?" she asked, sounding like a mother interrogating her child. "I have no idea how to take care of a couple of turtles and doves. I let the doves go, but its not like the turtles could just crawl away to the nearest pond. You didn't even leave any food or water for them, stupid! What if I had come home later than usual?"

"So, you're not mad about getting the gift, just that I didn't put in food and water with it?" Naruto asked slowly. Maybe there was still some hope of his plan working.

Sasuke was silent for a moment. "I suppose … this is some weird Holiday joke of yours or something. In your messed up head, this probably was meant to be nice," Sasuke sighed, "but you need to think it out better. I'm going to go to the library to study. I'll be back around 4. By then, you had better get all the supplies and any information I will need to take care of them!"

"You're keeping them?" Naruto asked excitedly and jumped up from the floor. "Really?"

Sasuke sighed. Naruto was too easily excitable. "Only if you get me everything I will need to care for them properly."

"I will. I will. Believe it!" Naruto proclaimed, nodding his head vigorously.

"Good," Sasuke acknowledged. "Can you get me something to go?"

"Yeah," Naruto answered and immediately went to start up the coffee machine. "So, uh, Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"Do … you … .um …. like the gifts?"

It took a moment for Sasuke to figure out how to answer that. "Well, the turtles aren't horrible, I guess. They seem simple enough to care for and they are … pleasant to have in the apartment. But, the dead bird on the stick was I think hardly what the poem had in mind when it says 'a partridge in a pear tree.' It was disgusting!"

"Eh, hehe," Naruto chuckled nervously. "It took me forever to find a place that would sell me a partridge and the only place I could find only sold partridge meat. And, I couldn't exactly bring a whole pear tree to your apartment, so I figured a branch from a pear tree would work just as well."

"You are an absolute idiot," Sasuke grumbled.

Naruto huffed indignantly. "Excuse me for trying to be ... (romantic) nice," he mumbled as he finished preparing her coffee.

When Sasuke did not say anything for a minute, Naruto turned away from the coffee machine to look at her.

He was shocked.

She was smiling softly at him. It was not a big smile, not an enthusiastic one, but it was there and it was genuine.

"It might be amusing to see what you come up with for the next 10 days," she said finally. "Just no more live … or dead animals please."

Naruto smiled back at her. "Just you wait. I will blow you away with my awesome gifts!" Then, he handed her the coffee he had just finished.

"Well, see," Sasuke replied as she walked away. "And don't forget about the turtles!" she yelled as the door was closing.

"I won't," he whispered. "And soon you will see how much I love you."

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


	3. French Hens

Thank you everyone for the nice reviews. They really encourage me. I hope you all enjoy the rest of the story.

To Vongola Maelstrom:

Thank you. I tried really hard to mix funny with cute. This is my first time writing something like this that is supposed to be funny but still romantic.

To Gigi and moopad:

Thank you both for your compliments. They are so nice. I have to say, the first two gifts are perhaps the most … tame of all the presents … hehe

To Still Not Dead Yet:

I know the first chapter was way crazy, but I think it set the right mood. Whatever weirdness you were feeling from the first chapter was supposed to make you feel like how Sasuke felt before she let Naruto explain. I'm glad I was able to turn it around and I hope that you can feel how Naruto is able to turn his crazy antics into romantic acts for Sasuke.

To ChosenMibhar:

I love how Naruto turned out in this story. A lot of times I will just start writing and the characters will take on a life of their own based on the guidelines of their actual "Naruto" (the show) personalities. I always intended for Naruto to be a mix of funny and sweet like I think he is in the anime, but I really like the way it developed. This is one of the reasons I love Narusasu so much. I think the dynamic between their personalities just allows for such a great relationship.

I hope everyone is having a great December whether you are at work, in school, on vacation, or celebrating whatever holiday you believe in!

**Three French Hens**

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

"He is so dead!" Sasuke shouted when she reached her apartment after picking up the turtles from Naruto.

Hanging from the doorknob to her apartment were tree different sexy maid costumes and lying against the door were three dusters with a note stuck above them that read: "made from hen feathers" and under that "P.S. I bet you would look sexy as a French maid."

Sasuke ripped the note off the door. She would burn him alive if any of her neighbors had seen this.

Her face was so warm and red … because of her anger of course.

She pulled her keys out of her pocket and desperately tried to get the key into the lock. She was so flustered that she kept missing the lock. "I bet your laughing your ass off right now, Naruto," she huffed as she finally got the door open.

When she had arrived at the café earlier to pick up her turtles, she thought Naruto had been acting strangely. Now, she knew why.

Suddenly, she froze. He better _**not**_ have been picturing her wearing those costumes when she was with him a minute ago. No wonder he could not seem to look her in the eye. That pervert.

And, she had just decided to give this 12 days of Christmas thing he was doing a chance. It was so much like Naruto to ruin it right away.

She threw her keys onto the desk by the entrance and ripped the outfits off the doorknob. Angrily, she kicked the feather dusters into the hallway and slammed the door shut. Because of her aggressive movements, the turtle cage banged against the wall of her hallway.

The sound seemed to snap Sasuke out of her rage. "Sorry, guys," she said exasperated. "It's not your fault Naruto is a complete pervert. That guy spends too much time with Jiraiya."

Jiraiya was the owner of the café and the one who had taken Naruto in when he had ran away from the orphanage. Naruto never spoke much about why he left the orphanage other to say it was not really suited for older children.

He had been living on the streets for a month and a half desperately looking for any kind of job, but the longer he spent on the streets, the worse he looked and the harder it was for him to appear respectable to potential employers.

One day, he had walked into the café with a few dollars he had received from some charitable strangers. It was early and he just wanted to get a small cup of cheap coffee before pounding the pavement.

When he went up to the counter to order, Jiriya had been sitting back and reading one of his crude books. Naruto had gotten tried to get his attention, but Jiraiya was absorbed in his "novel."

Naruto finally yelled at Jiraiya, who in turn told him to buzz off because he was in the middle of something very important. "Just get me some coffee!" Naruto had yelled. "Then you can go back to your porn."

Jiraiya had been so shocked that Naruto did not seem to mind him reading porn in the restaurant that he actually put down his book and examined Naruto. "What's with the ratty clothes, kid? Shouldn't you be in school?"

Once Naruto had reluctantly told Jiraiya his story, Jiraiya had hired him on the spot and treated him like his son. That was six years ago and Naruto had now practically taken over all aspects of the business, which Sasuke was thankful for. If she had seen a man reading porn while she was trying to get coffee, she would probably have killed him and then she would be expelled from school.

Jiraiya had a big heart, but spent way too much time on his side business writing pornographic comics. Sasuke had no doubt that one of the reasons he had let Naruto control the café as co-owner was so he could spend more time on his … research.

Sasuke would not be surprised if Jiraiya had "helped" Naruto with his plan judging by the types of gifts she was receiving.

Sighing softly, she carefully walked into her bedroom and placed the turtles gently on her desk, but the new terrarium did not fit very well on the desk. That made Sasuke smiled because she remembered just how surprised she had been when she had shown up to the café and seen the turtles.

They were in a fancy new terrarium complete with running water, decorations, food dishes, and lights. Next to the turtles was a large paper bag full of food of all kinds and some books on turtle care.

True to his word, Naruto had gotten everything she could possible need to care for the turtles and had even taken the time to learn it so that he could teach her when she came to pick them up.

It had actually been really enjoyable to discuss turtle care with Naruto. Naruto had been overjoyed to hear the names of the turtles and thankfully he had found out that Naruto Jr. was a guy. However, it turned out that Sasuke Jr. was a guy as well, which had Naruto laughing so hard he fell out of his chair.

"I guess I'll have to arrange the desk to fit you guys," Sasuke told the turtles. She placed the turtles on her bed momentarily and started arranging her desk. She had to move all of her books off of the desk, but she was not too upset about that. After all, in a few days, she would not need these books anymore. Next semester, she would have to find another place for her books, but she would not worry about that now.

Right now, she would worry about any damage control she would have to do because of Naruto's presents. It was only just barely 5pm and hopefully all of her businessmen neighbors were still at work. But, how could she find out for sure? Maybe she could pretend to need to borrow something, like sugar for her coffee, to see if anyone was home yet.

It was not the most original idea, but it would probably work. As she walked towards the front door, she scowled as she spotted the reason for her current mission. As she picked up her keys from the table, she kicked the outfits spitefully.

After about a half an hour of knocking on doors that, thankfully, no one answered, Sasuke returned to her apartment relieved. This time when she opened her door, she looked calmly at the outfits. She gathered them all in her arms, went into her room, and sat on her bed. She noticed a small envelope attached to one of the costumes.

_To my beautiful true love,_

_On the third day of Christmas,_

_My true love gave to me_

_Three French hens_

'Beautiful?' Sasuke thought. As she continued to examine each outfit, she realized they were not as raunchy as she had initially thought. One of them was actually quite nice and respectable. It was made of black velvet and had a delicate white silk apron embroidered with a black "R" in the corner.

_Maybe it would not be so horrible to wear this for Naruto._

She _did not _blush at that thought. Absolutely not! She had just forgotten to take off her jacket and had become overheated.

Even in her denial, she decided to keep the costumes instead of throwing them out. She hung them carefully in the closet. She stared at them for a while. All these gifts were making her think strange things about Naruto.

Why was Naruto doing this for her? Why did she react so calmly? If anyone else had pulled these stunts with her, she would have them in the emergency room at the very least.

She had thought she would be content in just letting Naruto do what he wanted without asking why, but now she really wanted to know.

"P.S. I bet you would look sexy as a French maid."

That one line was repeating over and over in her head. Was he just teasing her or did he really mean it?

Did …. Did Naruto like her?

She groaned. She did not have time to think about this right now. Tomorrow, there were _TWO _finals that she needed to study for. As an Uchiha, she was a master of hiding away her emotions, so she put all of her confusion and embarrassment and curiosity to the back of her mind and spent the rest of the night caring for the turtles and studying.

The next morning she was up bright and early. A girl did not become a top student without being able to wake herself up quickly when needed.

This morning, she decided not to go to the café. Seeing Naruto right now would just distract her from finishing her finals. Having two finals in one day was a very stressful situation and Naruto always had a way of creating stressful chaos in her life.

The finals went smoothly. It had certainly worn her out, but she was sure she had aced them. As she was walking towards her apartment, she debated stopping by the café before heading home.

Her mind continued to circle between going or not. Before she could decide, she had reached her street and needed to either go straight down the sidewalk to the café or cross the street to her apartment.

Finally, she hit the button to the crosswalk sign and waited to cross. When the signal had not changed after 30 seconds or so, she changed her mind and headed into the café.

Unfortunately, it was after 6 in the evening and there were a lot of people in the café at the moment. Naruto spotted her coming in, but then immediately had to go deal with another customer. Sasuke sat in a booth near the back of the store and waited. Thankfully, she had brought her books for her final tomorrow with her to campus to study between her two finals. She pulled them out of her backpack and started reading quietly.

As a true nerd, Sasuke did not notice the hours that passed as she studied and was surprised when Naruto came over and sat down in front of her. "What are you doing? Don't you have work to do?"

Naruto chuckled. "The café closed fifteen minutes ago and you didn't even notice. Then again, you always have unbreakable focus when you are studying."

"Thank you," Sasuke said awkwardly. She was not sure that was a situation where she needed to thank him, but it felt sort of like a compliment because of the soft way he had said it.

They sat quietly staring at each other for a few minutes.

"Hey, Naruto?" Sasuke asked cautiously.

"Yup?" Naruto replied.

"Um … why are you doing all this, the Christmas gifts?" she asked quietly.

Naruto was silent.

"You better go home and get the next gift before the batteries run out," Naruto said instead of a real answer. He walked into the back of the café and went upstairs to his apartment.

Sasuke was annoyed, but decided she might as well go home. Naruto would tell her when he was ready.

Naruto watched Sasuke leave the café from his window. "Sorry," he said to her retreating form. "I want you to fall for me a little more before I tell you that I love you."

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


	4. Calling Birds

**Four Calling Birds**

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

"What is that sound?" Sasuke exclaimed as the door to the elevator opened to her floor.

There were a bunch of her neighbors standing around her apartment murmuring.

"Oh, no," Sasuke mumbled. "This better not be a perverted gift."

Sasuke pushed her way through the crowd trying to be as unnoticeable as possible. When she reached the front of the crowd, she thankfully just saw four electronic parrots sitting on the ground. They were programmed to say "call me" in Naruto's voice.

With a sigh, she opened her door and grabbed the birds and the envelope posted on the door. Once inside, she closed and locked the door. It was a good thing most of her neighbors were just as antisocial as her and did not ask many questions. The gift was generic enough that as long as she kept a low profile for a while, her neighbors would not bother her.

First thing she had to do was figure out how to turn off the annoying electronic voices of the parrots. When she could not find an off switch, she just pulled out the batteries. Hearing one Naruto voice was more than enough, but four was downright torture … sort of.

Three of the parrots she shoved into the coat closet, but one she picked up along with its batteries and placed it on her desk just in case she maybe wanted to hear it sometime for some strange reason. She probably would not … but just in case she ever did … however unlikely.

After she had put all her books away, she sat down at her desk and opened the envelope that came with the birds.

_To my quiet true love_

_On the fourth day of Christmas,_

_My true love gave to me_

_Four calling birds_

_P.S. Call me_

_XXX-555-X2X4_

Sasuke fingered the note gently. She considered whether or not she should really call him. They had parted ways kind of awkwardly. She did not know whether they had had a fight or what.

Besides, he did not seem to want to answer any of her questions, so what use would calling do. _I could hear his voice._ The thought startled her. It had come to her head so naturally. Why?

…

Well, he did not seem to want to talk to her anyway, so why should she call?

She threw the note in the trash can next to her desk and pulled out her books for tomorrow's final. But, for some reason, she was not able to focus. So much for her amazing ability to focus.

"Are you guys hungry?" she asked the turtles in order to distract herself from thinking about calling Naruto.

After going to the fridge and pulling out some of the containers Naruto had bought her for the turtles, she started feeding the turtles. It was kind of disturbing to feed them worms, but Naruto had been thoughtful enough to get small containers that she just had to open and put in the cage without having to touch the worms directly.

Naruto may not have known Calculus or how to predict an acid-base reaction or the history of the French Revolution, but he knew about people. He could easily pick up on the hearts of others, what they hated, what they needed, what they loved.

On Sasuke's first visit to the café, Naruto had brought over a drink before she had ordered and it had been exactly what she had been wanting. Sasuke had not asked anything and Naruto had not told her anything on that visit, but her unspoken curiosity had brought her back the next day and the day after and the day after.

A week passed. Sasuke would come in and sit down, Naruto would bring her a drink, Sasuke would pay, and then leave all without a single word exchanged between the two. On the eighth day, Sasuke finally built up the courage to ask, "How do you do that?"

Naruto just smiled. "Different coffees are for different things. You needed something to warm you up without too much sugar or caffeine to make you jittery so you can focus on your schoolwork."

Sasuke was only momentarily impressed. "You saw me carrying my school books," she reasoned.

"Yup," he agreed. "You like to be in complete control of your actions. Your bag is perfectly organized and your clothes are always neat and straight."

Sasuke scowled and left the café without even paying. She did not like being examined like that. However, the guilt over not paying made her skulk back to the café the next morning.

"Here," Naruto said right as she entered the door. He handed her a steaming cup of some darkish liquid. "Yesterday was on the house. I'll start you on a tab. That way you can just pay once a month. That should be easier for a busy student like you. Although I'm sure a smart person like you can handle anything."

Sasuke took the cup without thanking him, but Naruto did not seem to mind and just continued to smile. She sat down in the corner of the café facing away from Naruto … and smiled.

Over the next weeks, Naruto slowly started to talk to her. At first, it was just a 'hello' or 'how was class today." He waited until Sasuke seemed comfortable with answering those small talk questions before asking her anything serious about her life.

In hindsight, Sasuke knew that the reason she had opened up to Naruto was because he had allowed her to make the first move so that she felt in control of the situation. Even when Naruto messed up and said something stupid, he always had a weird way of making her feel better. He let her insult him and make him feel stupid because then it felt like whatever he had done wrong was not a big problem.

Naruto always let her come to him with anything that she wanted to know about him or anything that was bothering her. He had always answered any of her questions before no matter how embarrassing or trivial. It had become natural for her to always get an answer from him, so when he did not answer her earlier, she felt annoyed.

But, maybe he deserved some leeway after three years of answering every single question she had asked. Maybe he had a good reason for not answering. After all this time, she figured she owed him the benefit of the doubt.

Her eyes wandered over to the parrot. As another distraction, she tried to figure out how to work the thing. "Really, Naruto," she sighed, "you should have at least left me with the instruction manual."

After turning the thing over and over a couple of times, she spotted a small switch on the underside of the left wing. She switched the parrot off before putting the batteries back in. The parrot did not make any noise, so it must really be off.

She stared at it. Slowly, she lifted the wing and switched the thing on.

"Call me!"

"Call me!"

As she listened to Naruto's electronic voice, she seemed to become hypnotized by it. Before she had realized it, she had picked up her cell phone and dialed the phone number she had already committed to memory.

The phone rang five times before Naruto answered the phone, but he did not say anything.

"Call me!" They both were startled by the sound of the parrot. Naruto started laughing on the other side of the phone and Sasuke scrambled to turn off the parrot.

"So *chuckle* you got the 'calling birds' I left you," Naruto said between his laughs.

"Yeah," she said, smiling widely (since he could not see her face).

They fell into silence again.

"Naruto." ~ "Sasuke." They said at the same time.

"Let me go first," Naruto said. "I think I know what you are going to say anyway."

"Okay," she agreed.

"I'm sorry I left you hanging," he said slowly. "I know you are curious about why I am doing this, especially since I never gave you gifts for Christmas or your birthday or anything before this, but I want it to be a surprise. I want to get through with my whole … plan before I … explain it.

"You know how the song goes. There are eight more days until Christmas and I worked really hard to set this up. If I tell you what I am doing … or why, then it will ruin all the surprises I have planned. Can you just wait until Christmas?"

Sasuke thought about it for a moment. On one hand, she hated surprises. She liked knowing what was going to happen and spent a lot of time and energy making sure she would be well prepared for anything that was coming up in her future.

Her brother had given her gifts before, but she was always fairly certain of what he would get her and knew he would never get her anything offensive or scary or unusable. Naruto was different. He was such an unpredictable person and she had no idea what she was in for if he was left to his own devices.

On the other hand, it was definitely exciting. Before she had met Naruto, her life had been very dull. She had just gone through the motions of what an Uchiha did. Normally, she would never drink anything without knowing what it was, but when Naruto had started bringing her surprise drinks, she had liked discovering each new flavor he brought her.

The gifts so far had been … strange at the very least, but they had made her feel, even if it was anger or frustration or embarrassment that she had felt. Uchihas were not supposed to be emotional and after the death of her parents, it had been easy to repress her emotions. Naruto had slowly been drawing out her emotions and if she allowed him to continue with his crazy plan, he would certainly draw out even more emotions.

The only uncertainty was whether or not she really wanted to start feeling again. Could she give Naruto a chance to change her?

"Yes," she answered quickly and then hung up the phone.

Naruto had no idea what she was really saying 'yes' to, but he was happy anyway. She had called him and had even listened patiently to all he had said. Her voice had given him hope that maybe they really could become lovers.

~*A*N*G*E*L*~  
P.S. The next chapter will involve a reference to the Grinch movie with Jim Carey, so you might want to go look it up if you haven't seen it before.


	5. Golden Rings

**Five Golden Rings**

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

Nothing.

Sasuke had come back from her last final. She was finally free from school for the rest of the year and had actually been excitedly anticipating whatever Naruto had in store for her today (even though she did not consciously admit it).

Yet, when she reached her apartment that evening, there was nothing in front of her door. She stormed into her apartment in a huff and slammed her door shut. Yesterday, he had practically begged her to accept his little game and today he had done nothing.

Was he just messing with her? Making her trust him and then shutting her out? But, Naruto would not do that to her. Would he? "He better have a reason!" she growled and threw her backpack across the room in her anger.

This morning, she had even gone to the café and had a pleasant conversation with Naruto before heading to campus. He had seemed happy, but maybe he really was mad about her questioning his motives. Maybe he had decided he was not going to continue with his plan because he thought she had doubted him or something.

But, she did trust him at least as much as she was able. When she had asked why he was sending her gifts, she did not think he would take the question to mean that she was doubting him, but rather she had kind of hoped to learn that he was doing this because he had liked her. Did she want him to like her? Did she like him?

"Argh, I feel like a stupid fangirl," Sasuke groaned. "Why can't I stop thinking about this?" She clutched her head in frustration. A moment later, she sighed and walked languidly into the living room. Then, she took off her coat and shoes and settled comfortably into the couch.

Normally, she was not a big fan of tv, but she had gotten a tv for the rare occasions when she did feel like watching something. And now, she was grateful that she had because she really needed something to lighten her mood.

After grabbing the remote from where it sat on the coffee table covered in dust from misuse, she turned the tv on to some random channel. Ironically, she found herself watching the Grinch movie with Jim Carrey.

She had been called a grinch many times in her life, and though she understood the general idea of the term, she had never seen the movie that went with it. Maybe it would give her some insights into the popular American view of Christmas that might be driving Naruto.

Surprisingly, she was enthralled by the movie. As the movie got to the part where Cindy Lou confronted the Grinch, she could not help but laugh. If she was the Grinch, than that made Naruto the short, strange little Cindy Lou.

Then, she became sad as everything went wrong for the Grinch. Is that what would happen to her for opening herself up like the Grinch had? Although she had not gone on a destructive rampage, she sure had felt like it for a moment. The broken look the Grinch gave chilled her heart. She never wanted to feel the emotions behind that look ever again.

Maybe it was better that Naruto had backed off. Maybe she should not allow him to get to her, to make her have any expectations. Perhaps she was just setting herself up for disappointment.

By now, she was locked onto every single action in the movie. What would happen to the Grinch? What would happen with Marth May? What would happen when everyone woke up with all their Christmas stuff gone? Why did Cindy Lou still trust the Grinch?

Did Naruto still like her? Well … at least in the … friendly sense of the word 'like.' The thought caused her to blush, but she did not notice that she was doing it.

The end of the movie was so amusingly happy that Sasuke actually started crying and laughing at the same time. "I am loosing my mind," she said between chocked laughs.

After the credits, she turned off the movie and walked leisurely into the kitchen. She grabbed a salad from the fridge for the turtles and a box of oreos from the cupboards for herself. She needed some serious chocolate to work through her worry.

Even though the movie had a happy ending, she just did not see herself spontaneously reuniting with Naruto. Ironically, even though she did not relate to the ending of the movie, she was still worried that her life would fall apart like the Grinch's after the whobilation. It was an absolutely crazy thing to believe in, but love does make people crazy … not that she was in love …

"Hey guys, you hungry?" Sasuke said softly as she entered her bedroom. "Here you go." She dumped the salad into the terrarium and then sat down at her desk.

It was strange not to reach for her books to study. Even though she had gone through this several times, the end of the semester always disturbed her routine and set her off balance. Naruto's strange behavior was just adding to the problem. She really did not know what to do with her time.

Usually, over winter break, she would catch up on all the things she had wanted to do during the term, but did not have the time for, like books she wanted to read, new stores or restaurants she wanted to visit, or shows or movies she wanted to see. She even kept a list of all the things she wanted to do on her desk to remind her that she would get to have fun once the term was over so she had to work hard during the semester.

But, looking at the list now, all she could think of that she wanted to do was hang out with Naruto and see what he had planned for the rest of the days of Christmas. She wondered if Naruto would give her that.

After staring absently at the turtles and eating oreos for a few minutes, she decided she would just turn in for the night. Maybe tomorrow she could go talk to Naruto and figure out what had gone wrong.

She changed into a loose pair of pajama pants and a tank top before snuggling into her bed and hoping that tomorrow would be better than today.

*Knock*KNOCK*KNOCK* "Sasuke!" "SASUKE!"

The girl in question woke with a start. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and tried to figure out what had woken her. "SASUKE!" That was a voice. She scratched her head. "SASUKE!" She knew that voice. "SASUKE!" That was Naruto's voice! 

When she finally realized that Naruto was standing outside her apartment calling her name, Sasuke jumped out of bed and raced for the front door. "SAS~" She flung open the door in the middle of his shout.

Naruto was frozen. Sasuke was standing panting in the doorway with messy hair and rumpled clothing. And to make it worse, the cold from the open door was causing her cheeks to flush and her breath to become steamy. "Naruto," she whispered, slightly out of breath from the running.

Naruto felt blood rush to his neither regions. This was not good. He could not become excited right in front of her … at least not yet. He did not want to scare her away. He coughed awkwardly. He had to get his mind off of how sexy she looked right now.

"Go … ahem … go get dressed," he chocked out. "We are going somewhere."

"Naruto, what are you talking about?" she asked in a groggy voice and then yawned widely.

"God, Sasuke, just … just please go put some clothes on," Naruto barely managed to say. The cold had made her nipples hard, although Sasuke was too tired to notice.

"Ugh … what time is it?" Sasuke asked and stretched her arms above her head causing her shirt to ride up her stomach.

Naruto could not take it anymore. He shoved Sasuke backwards into her apartment and shut the door behind him. He continued to push her until they had reached her bedroom. He threw her onto the bed and then ran out of the room.

"GET DRESSED!" he yelled as he ran into the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen, he threw open the freezer and stuck his head in the ice box. That was too close. He had been seconds away from sticking his tongue down her throat, and while he would thoroughly enjoy it, it would ruin any chance he had of winning Sasuke's fragile heart.

"If you want to kill yourself, you are supposed to use the stove, genius," Sasuke said sounding only slightly more awake as she entered the room. As Naruto turned to look at her, he thankfully saw her wearing some jeans and a navy sweater.

"What were you doing, idiot?" she asked angrily. She was not normally a morning person anyway, but last night had been particularly hard because she had spent half the night tossing and turning because of this idiot.

"I … uh …. Um …" Naruto mumbled and started scanning the room for an excuse. Finally, he remembered the coffee in his hands. "I was just trying to cool the coffee down a little bit before giving it to you. Haha … yeah. That's all I was doing."

"Coffee?" Sasuke asked eagerly, completely ignoring how absurd his excuse actually was. She practically ripped the cup from his hands and went to sit down on the nearby barstools. As she busied herself with her coffee, Sasuke did not notice Naruto sigh in relief.

After a few minutes waiting for the caffeine to kick in, Sasuke asked, "What are you doing here Naruto?"

"I'm here to give you your fifth gift," Naruto said cheerfully and came to sit on the stool next to her.

"Really?" she asked in surprise. Maybe he had not given up on her. "Why today? Why not yesterday?"

"Well, today is really the fifth day of Christmas," Naruto explained calmly. "I had been giving you the gifts on the night before because you had classes during the day and I would not be able to see you. But, now that you are out of school, I can give you the gifts in person during the day on the right day."

To her and Naruto's surprise, she started laughing. She had spent all that time yesterday worrying for nothing. Naruto was staring at her in shock. "What's so funny?" he asked. He knew Sasuke acted weird when she was tired, but he had never seen her laugh like this because of it … she had never seen her laugh like this at all.

"Nothing *chuckle* I was just … just surprised not to find anything yesterday and I never thought to actually look at a calendar to figure out what day of the month it was," Sasuke finished. She had stopped laughing and was now blushing in embarrassment at her outburst. "Sorry. I did not get a lot of sleep last night."

"Because of me?" Naruto asked in excitement. She had wanted the gift and had even been worried because of him.

"I was just worried about what stupid thing you would do next. It was like waiting for a bomb to explode," Sasuke countered. "What are we doing today anyway?"

"Getting you five golden rings of course," Naruto proclaimed. "Let's go!" 

Fifteen minutes later found them standing in front of a piercing store. "~Naruto~" Sasuke said dangerously sweet. "What are we doing here?"

"Like I said, getting you five golden rings," Naruto said in an overly happy voice. "I figured it would look weird to actually wear five different golden rings on your fingers, so I thought golden earrings would be a good compromise. Although if you would prefer a nose ring or even a nipple ring I would definitely pay for that too."

"NARUTO!"

At the end of the day, it was hard to tell who was in more pain: Sasuke from her five EAR rings or Naruto from the extremely large bruise on his head. Their love life was off to an interesting start.

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


	6. Geese a Layin'

**Six Geese a Laying**

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Naruto's shout could have woken the neighbors, but when Sasuke had opened her door that Sunday morning to find Naruto lying on some pillows in what she assumed was supposed to be a sexy pose, she really did not care that dumping hot coffee onto him might cause him to yell and wake the neighbors.

However, when she started to hear movement in the apartments around her, she started to care. "Get in here now!" Sasuke hissed. "And take your stupid pillows with you!" She grabbed some of the pillows herself and just barely managed to shut the door behind her and Naruto before she started to hear voices out in the hallway. "Go hide in the kitchen," she whispered quickly.

Just seconds after she had got the words out, she heard a knock at her door. When she opened it, she saw her next door neighbor standing tiredly in the hallway. "What's wrong, Mr. Hayate?"

"I heard screaming. Are you okay?" he asked. Mr. Hayate was a sweet man and always tried to look out for Sasuke because he was worried about a young girl living alone.

"I'm a bit frightened by the screaming," she said in a mock scared voice, "but it did not come from my room. Do you know what it was?" She grabbed his arm to try and convince him that she was genuinely worried about the noise.

"No, but you better stay inside for a while. Lock the doors and windows and don't open the door until I come back," he warned her, then walked away to talk with some of the other neighbors.

Sasuke closed and locked her door with a sigh. "That was close," she mumbled. "Naruto! What the hell were you doing?" She walked into the kitchen to find Naruto scrubbing his bare chest with a washcloth. "Put your shirt back on!"

"I would, but it happens to be covered in hot, sticky coffee," Naruto grumbled. "And, whose fault is that?"

Sasuke rolled her eyes. "What did you think would happened when I opened the door to … that?"

"I thought you were starting to like my gifts," Naruto whined. "You even went along with the ear piercing and they look beautiful by the way."

Sasuke sighed. "And what was this supposed to be?" 

"Six geese a laying," Naruto said curtly. "These," he said picking up one of the pillows, "are goose down pillows and they are used for lying down."

"That's stupid, your stupid," Sasuke mumbled, but she really did not have any anger behind her words.

Naruto just smiled at the playful teasing coming from Sasuke that meant she was not angry with him, but from now on, he decided not to give her any gifts before he was sure she had drank her morning coffee first. "Can I use your washing machine?"

"I don't know why I should let you after what you did, but give me your shirt and I'll wash it with a load of my clothes," Sasuke said. It was as close as an apology as Naruto would get and he knew it. Sasuke took the shirt from Naruto's outstretched hand and left the room to wash it. "Make me some new coffee!" she yelled from the other room.

Naruto started whistling as he rummaged around Sasuke's kitchen to find the things he would need to make some coffee. Anyone else would probably be upset by Sasuke's angry behavior, but Naruto knew better. Sasuke never allowed herself to reveal her emotions to just anyone, so to see an emotion from her towards him, even if it was anger, meant that she trusted him.

And, he had to admit this gift was not that great. It was just all he could think of doing. Maybe he could find something else to do with the pillows. The first thought that ran through his head made him choke. "Nope," he muttered. "Definitely can't do that. I need something more PG … hm …. A pillow fight!" He got an evil look on his face. This would be fun.

However, for his own safety, he would wait until she had some more coffee. He was already on thin ice with her. Besides, she would let her calm down and feel like she was safe from his craziness. Mwahahahaha …

"What's going on in that crazy head of yours?" Sasuke asked as she noticed the strange look on his face.

"~N~o~t~h~i~n~g," he chimed.

Sasuke scowled. Whatever it was, it was something. "Where's my coffee?" she demanded. She would need caffeine to deal with whatever he had planned. When Naruto held a cup out to her, she nearly ripped it out of his hands.

"Have you put anything in your stomach this morning besides coffee?" Naruto asked with a chuckle.

"Hn."

"~sigh~ I'll make some breakfast," Naruto said. "Pancakes sound good?"

"Hn."

"Fine. Don't talk to me. Just sit there quietly and drink your coffee, which I made by the way. In the meantime, I will be making actual food to nourish your body. If it weren't for me, you probably would not ever even eat a decent breakfast. I'll be done in 15 minutes," Naruto ranted to Sasuke, who was only half (maybe only a quarter) listening to him. He was muttering about 'stupid antisocial loners' the whole time he was preparing the pancakes. "Here," he said as he slammed a plate of finished pancakes in front of her. Then, he got a plate of pancakes for himself and sat down next to her to eat.

"Thank you. I'm sure these will be disgusting since they were made by an idiot, but it would be rude not to eat them after you put in the effort," Sasuke said as casually as possible and started to eat her pancakes quietly.

"You're welcome," Naruto said back just as casually, but when she looked away to eat her pancakes, he smiled brightly at the hidden compliment. He knew if Sasuke really thought they were disgusting, she would not care about being rude and would just throw them in the trash.

As they ate, each of them would steal glances at the other. It was strange how just a glimpse can mean so much when you are in love, although Sasuke had yet to officially and consciously acknowledge her love. However, Naruto was beginning to pick up on the signs that she was in love with him. He could only hope that she would recognize it soon enough for his plan to be completed.

"Hey, Sasuke?" he asked between bites.

"Hn?"

"Do you … ahem … I mean, would you …. Are you doing anything on New Year's Eve?" he asked awkwardly.

Sasuke raised a questioning eye brow. "No~why?"

"I … uh … I was planning to throw a party in the café on New Year's Eve for my friends," he explained.

"So?"

"I want you to come," he said nervously. "I mean … you are my friend, too, right?"

Sasuke was quite for a moment. She stared at Naruto's nervous demeanor and wondered why he would ask that. As far as she knew, they were the typical definition of friends. She had never really had a friendship before Naruto, so she was not good at judging what it meant to be a friend. She thought they were friends. Had Naruto not thought they were friends? Even if he did not before, he at least wanted to be her friend now. Was it good that he wanted to be friends now or bad that he did not consider them friends before this? "I thought we were ... friends," she said quietly. "Did you not think we were friends?" Had she misinterpreted their relationship?

Naruto practically exploded with happiness at her words. "Of course we are friends!" he yelled as he threw an arm around her shoulder making Sasuke blush, which she failed at trying to disguise as a scowl. "It's just hard to tell with you sometimes. You are so quite. Um … Not that that is a bad thing. It means you think a lot and you know how to control your words. I always talk and I sometimes get in trouble for talking too much."

"Sometimes?"

"Okay, a lot, but that's why I'm saying it is good that you are quiet. It is nice to just sit in silence with you because you always look like you are thinking something so profound and deep. When I'm with you, I can feel your passion for knowledge. Bu~ut, it is harder to figure out what you are feeling," he finished with a whine.

"Not everybody wants their emotions known to the world," Sasuke said with a faraway voice. "It can be dangerous."

Naruto smiled gently and squeezed her shoulder lightly. He knew how hard it was for her to admit this to him and it meant that he was getting further and further behind her emotional barriers and into her heart. It really was only a matter of time now. He could not wait until she finally admitted her love! It would be the best moment of his life.

"It's okay to hide your emotions from the world," he whispered into her hair. "As long as you are able to show them to the people who matter."

Sasuke gasped lightly. Naruto had never done anything like this before. No one had ever treated her like this before. She felt so vulnerable. Her mind struggled to force herself to strengthen her barriers, but her heart was peaking cautiously through the cracks. Her heart allowed her a moment longer in Naruto's embrace before letting her mind take control. "I'll go wash up," she announced, standing up abruptly and breaking out of Naruto's hold.

"Okay," he responded quietly. He took a deep breath and then resumed his loud and cheerful persona. "I'll wait for you in the living room!" With that, he scampered into the living room, secretly taking some of his goose pillows with him.

Sasuke slowly washed up the few dishes Naruto had used because she needed some time to think. Letting herself be vulnerable was scary. After her parents had died, her heart had broken and the only way that she survived was by locking her heart far away from anything that could hurt it.

Yet, she had not felt any danger with Naruto. Was her heart fixed? Was Naruto the one who had fixed it? Did she want her heart fixed? Wasn't a broken heart is easy to shatter again? There were so many questions swirling in her mind that she just could not find answers for.

Before she realized, she was out of things to wash and had to make a decision on what to do next. She took a deep breath to strengthen her resolve and walked towards the living room.

*BAM*

As she rounded the corner to the living room, Naruto had smacked her in the face with a pillow.

"NARUTO!"

The ensuing pillow fight allowed her to take her mind off of Naruto, but soon she would have to confront her feelings for him.

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


	7. Swans a Swimmin'

Once again, I have to thank all my wonderful reviewers. You guys really mean a lot to me. While I would write and post my stories regardless of whether anyone reviewed or not, I feel greatly encouraged when I get feedback of any kind, positive or negative.

Magic Fear: O.O … here's your update, please don't kill me *hides behind keyboard* lol

Still not dead yet: Thank you for always reviewing. You are such a great encouragement. Yes, the five rings was a little cheesy, but hey I figured the whole story was kind of cheesey, so I went for it

Sawara Emily A.K.: Thanks. I'm really glad you like the story. Sometimes I feel nervous that no one will like the story, but I would be happy if even just one person enjoyed reading the words that I wrote.

Anata Kiyoshi: I'm glad you caught the trend. It was so hard keeping it straight at first since sometimes I would have two days covered in one chapter or I had to make references to days in the future. Honestly, I'm still paranoid that I screwed up somewhere. In fact, I just rechecked the days in my head just before posting this story. Lol Thanks for reading. I hope you will get some enjoyment from the rest of the story.

Moopad: I love the upcoming gifts. I just had sooooo much fun thinking them up. I actually haven't written the last two chapters yet and I am having so much fun thinking up the wildest craziest thing I can for a grand finale.

Vangola Maelstrom: I thought so too. I like Sasuke as a female. No matter what people say about her being out of character when she is sweet and shy and stuff, I think they are wrong. A lot of times, I think people just take Sasuke at face value for being a bastard, but I think there is a lot more behind his character than that and I think it is kind of an insult to the writer of Naruto to just characterize him as such a simple character … wow, okay sorry for the rant. Lol Thank you for the review.

DXS Fan:

Thanks for the review. I read some of your stuff. Sorry I didn't review, though, I have been kind of busy and just posting the stories as quickly as I can. You're a great writer, too, and I'll try to get around to reviewing your stuff.

Sorry everyone for taking so long to reply to your reviews, I've been sick and still having to get everything ready for Christmas. Anyway, without further ado, please read and enjoy.

Seven Swans a Swimming

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

Stupid.

She was stupid. She should have known better than to give Naruto a key to her apartment, but it had been late after a busy day of pillow fighting, then convincing Mr. Hayate that the strange noises coming from her apartment were just the tv, and finally watching movies with Naruto until early the next morning. So, at the time, giving Naruto a key so he could let himself out and she could continue sleeping on the couch had seemed like a good idea.

She was stupid for letting stupid Naruto take advantage of her in her tired stupidity.

Now, she was faced with the sight of … 1,2,3,4 … 7 pairs of white wings behind 7 very, very skimpy white bathing suits. If he expected her to wear those things, he would find himself face to face with some REAL white winged angels after his death by her hands.

"NARUTO!" The little devil had to be hiding around here somewhere. She stood up groggily and started shuffling around the apartment tiredly. He wasn't in the living room. He wasn't in the bathroom. He wasn't in her bedroom. The only place left for him to hide was the kitchen.

As she walked into the kitchen, she saw no sign of Naruto, but she did see a rather large pot of coffee set beside a large omelet and a small envelope. Sasuke approached the food slowly. If there was something perverted in that note, Naruto would be pulling feathers out of his ass for all of 2011.

She opened the note cautiously and started reading.

To my angelic true love,

On the seventh day of Christmas,

My true love gave to me

Seven swans a swimming.

P.S. The eggs are swan eggs and are supposed to be an aphrodisiac.

Sasuke crumpled the note in a mix of anger and embarrassment. She knew she should be furious at the implication, but she found it strangely intriguing. "Swan eggs, huh?" she wondered. "How exotic."

She started eating slowly. They really did not taste all that different from chicken eggs, which was good, but she wondered if they could really be considered an aphrodisiac when they did not seem any different from normal eggs. Although, maybe it was just the idea of eating something that came from an animal considered to be a symbol of love.

For Sasuke, coffee was a much more romantic food and a good judge of a person. The kind of coffee you made and drank said a lot about the kind of person you were. She had learned a lot about that from Naruto. It was fascinating to listen to Naruto describe a person based on the coffee they ordered and even more so when he was able to predict an order before a customer said anything. When he had done it to her, she was intrigued and after a while, decided it would be a fun skill to learn.

Furthermore, it had given them something to talk about while Sasuke was still uneasy around him because it gave them a lighthearted subject to talk about before she was comfortable talking with him about any more personal topics.

For a long time, she had wondered about Naruto's defining drink. Because he made so many different many different types of drinks for his customers, Naruto had never revealed his signature coffee. What kind of coffee would she predict for Naruto?

On the surface, he seemed like someone who would like a really sweet drink because of his loud and hyper presence, but he was also very insightful and able to appreciate more exotic flavors. Perhaps he would drink a bittersweet European coffee or an extremely flavorful ristretto.

What had he prepared for her this morning? She took a deep breath through her nose and was assaulted by a rich coffee scent. A sip revealed an extremely sweet coffee made mostly of milk and sugar with little actual coffee. Hm … he knew she did not like overly sweet things, so why did he give her this drink?

Did he not want her to have a lot of caffeine? The energy she would get from sugar would not last very long, but at the same time, she would not be as jittery from caffeine. Did he have something planned for today? Too much caffeine was not good before doing something active. Perhaps he would try to take her swimming as the poem suggests.

Well, she would just have to wait for him to show his stupid self. For now, she would just enjoy her breakfast and try to forget about the bird flu hazard in the living room.

When she was finished with eating and cleaning up her breakfast, she decided to go get ready. But, what should she wear? She had no idea what Naruto had planned for today if anything.

Maybe … maybe she could wear one of the swimsuits just in case. Besides, if she wore it under some jeans and a sweater, no one would notice if she ended up not needing it.

After a quick shower, she walked around the living room in a towel to examine the different swimsuits. She could immediately rule out any of the swimsuits with less fabric than a doll's dress, which only left two choices from that stupid Naruto.

One was a sporty halter and shorts, while the other was a more delicate tube top and skirt bottom. The sporty one was more practical, and before she met Naruto, she would automatically choose that one. But now, she was thinking that the other one would make her look prettier for Naruto. When had she started worrying about what Naruto would think of her appearance?

She angrily grabbed the skirt suit and stormed into her room. The thought was embarrassing and when she was embarrassed, she got angry. Naruto had better take her swimming after all the effort she was taking to look nice for him.

However, two hours later, there was still no sign of Naruto. Maybe he really did not have anything planned for today. Did she really want to see him that badly?

After another fifteen minutes or so, she picked up her phone to call him, but would that make her seem too desperate? She stared at the phone and dialed then deleted then dialed his number over and over again. It took another twenty minutes for her to decide to call.

"Finally," she heard Naruto mumble on the other end of the phone.

"What?" Sasuke asked in confusion.

Naruto was quiet for a moment. He was not sure whether or not to admit that he had set up this little test for her to see how long it would be until she came running to him. Maybe a little bit of the truth would not hurt. "I was waiting for you to call," he said.

"Why didn't you just call me or come over here yourself?" Sasuke grumbled.

"I thought you might like some time alone," he said teasingly. "We have been spending a lot of time together recently. Aren't you annoyed with me?"

" … no," she whispered. And, she found that was completely true. She usually liked being alone, but recently, she found she would rather be with Naruto. It felt so nice to be with Naruto. Suddenly, she realized how lonely it could be in her apartment without him.

"What was that?" Naruto teased again. "Did you mis~s me, sugar?"

Did she miss him? Why was she always thinking about him? Why did she want to spend time with him? She really did not want to think about the answers to those questions because they would mean opening her heart and she still was not ready to do that.

"Naruto, just get your ass over here now," Sasuke yelled into the phone. "We are going swimming!" She immediately hung up on him after that. She was blushing like a crazy person, so much so that she was afraid Naruto could tell even over the phone.

She heard a knock on the door only a second later. She frowned. That could not be Naruto already; however, when she opened her front door, she saw that it was, in fact, Naruto. He was lying on the pillows he had brought yesterday and wrapped up in one of her blankets.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as her eyebrow started to twitch. She was torn between anger and happiness.

Honestly, with all the emotions Naruto was making her feel, she was getting dizzy. . Embarrassment. Curiosity. Anger. Happiness. And that was all only from this morning.

"I thought you went home," she grumbled. "I gave you my key, didn't I?"

"I just needed to be able to go out and get your gifts," he said with a yawn. "I could not just leave you helplessly asleep in an unlocked apartment."

"Why didn't you just come inside afterwards? Why sit out here and wait for me to wake up?" Sasuke asked skeptically.

'I had to wait until you drank your coffee,' he mumbled quietly.

"What was that?"

"I did not want to wake you up. You were so tired. I thought it would be … safer (for me) if I just waited out here and let you sleep," Naruto covered.

"You could have come inside and … slept with me," she said blushing brightly behind her scowl.

Naruto chocked at her words. She had to be doing these things to tease him on purpose. She just had to be. No one was that sexy on accident, but …oh … if she was, how much sexier would she be if she actually tried? Now it was Naruto's turn to blush … ahem, well, flush … in a manly way.

"Do you want to go swimming now?" Naruto asked to change the subject.

"Do you even have a swimsuit?" Sasuke asked in return.

"No," he replied sarcastically. "I figured I would wear one of the ones I got for you." He scoffed.

"Hm … not a bad idea," she taunted. "I bet you would look so~o sexy."

"What am I? A piece of meat?" he asked in a girly voice. "Stop objectifying me!"

"Shut up," she snapped with a slight chuckle in her voice. "You better hurry up and clean up this mess if you want to come to the pool and see me in the swimsuit you got me." She grabbed her purse from the nearby table and ran to her car.

Naruto was too shocked to move. He never thought she would actually wear the swimsuits she got her. "Wait!" he called after her. "Which one are you wearing!"

He heard her laughing from the parking lot. "You'll just have to come and find out!" she shouted up at him.

He scrambled to throw all of the pillows and blankets into the apartment before shutting and locking the door. He ran down the stairs and out to his car, just in time to see Sasuke speeding away in her own car. Thankfully, he knew where she was going. There was a public indoor pool not far from here that they had both visited in the past.

It was a quaint little place run by a guy that they had gotten to know well. Iruka Umino taught at the University that Sasuke went to. She was even hoping to become his graduate student in a few years. It had a small cafeteria set up inside that Naruto's café supplied, so he got to go there whenever he wanted for free.

And Naruto did go frequently. He had gotten pretty close to the guy and considered him to be a part of his family. One day, he hoped Sasuke would become a part of his family, too, but for now he just wanted to see Sasuke in one of the suits he had picked out. He knew any one of them would turn him into drooling idiot. His true love was so hot.

~*A*N*G*E*L*~

P.S. I'm starting to love this storyline so much I've been thinking of doing a spin-off story, please let me know what you think.


	8. Maids a Milkin'

**8 Maids a Milkin'**

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

"What is this supposed to be?"

Sasuke was thoroughly confused when Naruto walked into her apartment carrying what she assumed were eight strange costumes. They were skimpy dresses, but she could not figure out what exactly they were supposed to be.

"Cocktail waitress outfits!" Naruto proclaimed.

"Hn?"

"Well," he explained. "I figured we don't really have milk maids anymore, so the closest thing I could think of was a cocktail waitress!"

"Idiot," Sasuke growled. "I have decided you officially have a cosplay fetish, you pervert!"

"I'm not a pervert," Naruto whined. "It is hard to figure out what to do for all these out of date gifts. I was trying to make it more modern and sexy."

"Sexy?" Sasuke asked with a blush. "Why would you want it to be sexy, especially if you claim you are not a pervert?"

"I … I just meant that … I wanted them to be fun gifts, not just boring things because they fit into the song," Naruto tried to cover. He was still not ready to reveal to Sasuke that he was trying to win her love. She needed to open her heart just a bit more before she would be ready to hear his reasons.

"Uh huh. Sure," Sasuke acknowledged ironically. "Give me those." She grabbed the outfits from Naruto and went to stuff them in the back of her closet with all of the other costumes. She was getting more and more open to the idea of wearing them for Naruto, especially after the look Naruto had given her in that swimsuit. She rather liked the way he fell over himself to impress her at the pool.

To her surprise, Naruto had actually told her how beautiful she was at the pool. She had almost thought that maybe he liked her or something, although she quickly told herself that she was just misreading the signs because she had never had a good guy friend let alone a genuine boyfriend.

Of course, she had gained many admirers over the years for she acknowledged that she was an attractive person, but she had never believed that any of them liked her for more than her looks because she certainly did not have a good personality.

Sasuke had to move some of her regular clothes to make room for the costumes. With an armful of clothes, she looked around her room for any empty space. The desk was full with schoolwork, the terrarium, and the electronic parrots. Under the bed had been filled by the goose down pillows. That only left the dresser, which was already full of clothes. It was amazing how much Naruto had filled up her life. She would have to put them out in the hallway closet.

"Whatcha' got there?" Naruto asked as she came out of the room.

Sasuke flushed at what she would have to tell Naruto. "Your perverted costumes are filling up my closet, so I have to go put these in the hallway closet." She walked past him and began hanging the clothes in the closet.

"You kept them?" Naruto asked alarmed. "I thought you would have thrown them out right away."

"It would be rude to throw out gifts," Sasuke said haughtily. "No matter how … perverted the gift."

"You learn that from Martha Stewart?" Naruto teased. "Look at you being a regular ol' home maker. You would make a great wife."

"You asking?" Sasuke countered before she could realize the implications of her words.

Naruto became awkwardly silent.

"Naruto?" Sasuke called from the hallway. She did not understand why he had suddenly stopped talking. "Naruto?" she called again as she entered the living room where he was sitting on the couch. As she rounded the couch to look at him, she saw a deeply thoughtful look on his face. "What's wrong?"

Naruto did not say anything, but he looked up into her eyes. His eyes searched hers for something. "Naruto, you're being quiet, and with you, that is usually a bad sign."

"Would you … want to be a wife?" Naruto croaked.

"What … what are you asking?" Sasuke snapped. She stormed away from him and into the kitchen. She had to keep him from seeing her face because she was afraid he would be able to read her mind.

When Naruto had asked if she wanted to be a wife, she had for some unexplainable reason pictured herself marrying Naruto in a big old-fashioned wedding. She had pictured Naruto in a stunning black suit as he watched her walk down the aisle towards him. He had smiled so brightly as he said his vows and she had thought he had looked so handsome. There was no way Naruto could ever find out what she had thought.

She paced back and forth around the kitchen. Why had she even thought that in the first place? When thinking about her future, she had never before thought about marriage because the idea of having a new family after losing her first family had still been too hard to contemplate. Eventually, she had just forgot about the concept altogether, so why did she suddenly think about it now?

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, she did not have the time to think about it right now. Naruto was in the other room and she would have to get back to him soon before he decided to come see what she was doing.

Frantically, she looked around the kitchen for an excuse as to why she had come in here. Eventually, she spotted her coffee pot still half full in the machine, so she could say that she just wanted to finish the pot before it went bad.

After pouring a cup for Naruto and herself and throwing them the microwave to heat up, she walked slowly back into the living room. Naruto was sitting on the couch quietly in the same position as when she had left. He glanced up at her when she came to sit next to him on the couch.

"I set a timer for the coffee. I just heard it and went to get us some coffee," Sasuke explained solemnly. If Naruto did not know her better, he would probably believe her because she had such a intellectual and convincing voice.

"No, you didn't," he said in a soft deep voice.

Sasuke held her breath. She did not want to face this. It was a silly slip of the tongue. Why couldn't he just let the subject drop? "What are you talking about?"

"Sasuke." He said her name so intensely that a shiver went up her spine. He lifted his head and looked her in the eyes. "Sasuke, have you ever thought about having a boyfriend?"

"Why …" her breath hitched in her throat. "Why are you asking?"

"I …" he paused and rubbed his head in frustration. "I had wanted to wait, but now I think I should just say it."

"Naruto?" she whispered breathily. What was going on? When had her and Naruto switched from two buddies having fun to a boy and a girl in a boy and girl situation?

"You have already become an old bitty. You have no hope of getting married, so you shouldn't worry about it," Naruto said, breaking the tense atmosphere and earning himself an extremely powerful punch to the back of the head.

Sasuke was fuming. She had actually let herself consider the possibility of dating Naruto and he had to go and say something absolutely stupid and insulting. With a growl, she stood up and stormed out of the room and into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. "GET OUT!" she yelled from behind her door.

If possible, Naruto was even more shocked than Sasuke. With the way Sasuke had stormed out earlier, he was sure she was upset and disgusted with the idea of getting married to him. Now, he was confused. Sasuke would not have gotten so upset if she was not hurt by his comment. Had she really thought about marrying him?

Maybe … maybe she was ready to consider the idea of dating him. He groaned. If that was true, he had just completely messed everything up. Sasuke had let herself think about the possibility of love and he had crushed her dreams.

He had to fix this fast or there would be no hope of ever getting her to open her heart again.

Just seconds after she had left, he scrambled off the couch after her. "Sasuke!" He rushed towards her bedroom. "Sasuke! I'm sorry!" He pounded on her door. "Sasuke! I was only joking!" He banged his head on the door. "Sasuke! Please! Please come out and talk to me!"

"GO AWAY!"

Naruto had never heard her this emotional even when she had told him about the traumatic circumstances surrounding the death of her family. It was faint, but he had even heard a slight trembled in her voice.

"Sasuke!" he begged. "Please open the door!"

He desperately tried to force open her door, but she had a lock placed on the door for extra safety. Ironically, he had been the one who had suggested adding the lock. Eventually, he ran out of energy, so he slumped to his knees.

"Please, Sasuke," he said softly. "I can't … I can't lose you now."

He heard her gasp from the other side of the door. There was still hope.

"Sasuke! Come out so I can ask you out properly," he proclaimed confidently as he stood up.

"Stupid." Sasuke whispered behind the door.

Naruto heard the door lock click open. Quickly, he burst into the room before Sasuke could change her mind. What he saw shocked him.

Sasuke was crying.

During the three years he had known her, Naruto had never seen her come even close to tearing up, let alone actually crying. Even though he knew it was wrong, he was actually flattered that she was showing this much emotion because of him. (He would be beating himself up for that for years.)

"Sas…" he started and took a step towards her. 

"Don't!" Sasuke snapped with a sniffle. "All these gifts, all this time we've been spending together, all the things you said about me being beautiful … what were your reasons?" 

Naruto just stared at her. Was she really ready to date? One wrong move right now could cost him everything he had built with her so far and he would never be able to get it back.

"Just … just please," Sasuke sobbed. "Please tell me what you want from me."

"Sasuke," he said carefully. He stepped towards her slowly. Sasuke flinched away, but Naruto caught her in his arms. "Sasuke, I love you."

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


	9. Ladies Dancing

**9 Ladies Dancing**

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

"Perfect!"

"No!" Sasuke yelled back at Naruto.

"Awwww … come on," Naruto whined. "You're my girlfriend now, so it shouldn't be embarrassing."

"Just because you are my … b-b-boy-boyfriend …" Sasuke stammered, "now doesn't mean you can make me were such a skimpy outfit … in public."

When Naruto had declared his love, Sasuke had been too moved (and perhaps momentarily insane) to think about all of the consequences of dating a complete and total idiot before she had agreed to become his girlfriend. All she could really muster was a soft 'okay' to Naruto's confession, but thankfully, Naruto had understood and had not pressed the subject any further.

Yesterday, Naruto had proclaimed that this was the perfect time for them to start dating because his gift tomorrow would be perfect for a first date. She really should have known better than to believe in getting a romantic date from a complete pervert.

Just minutes ago, Naruto had shown up at her door carrying … once again, an armful of costumes. When she opened the door, Naruto had started reciting his lines.

"To my graceful true love,

"On the ninth day of Christmas,

My true love gave to me

Nine ladies dancing." 

Apparently he had picked out nine different types of dance outfits for her and for him: Ballroom, Ballet, Belly, Japanese, Burlesque, Jazz, Tango, Hip-hop, and Latin. Currently, he was trying to convince her to wear the Burlesque outfit out to the club with him.

"Oooh … ?" He asked suggestively. "Does that mean you will wear it for me in private?"

"Don't push it, you pervert," Sasuke growled. "I'm still mad at you for saying I am an old bitty with no chance of getting married."

"Eh hehe …" he laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "That was only a joke and so was the outfit."

"It better be," Sasuke snapped.

"Actually, I set up some latin dance lessons for us this afternoon," he explained. "Then afterwards, I am going to take you to a fantastic latin dance club near campus. So, I figured you could wear this one." He held up the latin dance dress, which was a pale lavender ruffle dress that was modest enough for her to wear. "I bet you would look absolutely stunning in it."

Sasuke blushed brightly. Naruto was being so sweet that she did not know what to do. Never before had she felt so happy, even back when her parents were alive. Anyone from school who saw her now would not believe she was actually Sasuke Uchiha, the cold, emotionless, egotistical jerk who never smiled.

It felt so strange to feel all these new emotions, but it was not unwanted. Last night as she thought about everything that had happened with Naruto, she realized that Naruto had been preparing her heart for the idea of love since the moment they had met. At first, Naruto had shown her that talking to someone about your personal life could actually be comforting. Then, he had given her the confidence to ask someone him about his personal life. And, little by little, he had taught her that friendship was a wonderful thing.

After three years, Naruto had somehow healed her broken heart to the point where she could accept his love, and she had learned not just to accept it, but actually want it. She wanted to be in a relationship with Naruto, but she had no idea what that meant. For now, she would just have to follow Naruto's plans and hope that everything would work out right.

"When … when is the lesson?" Sasuke really had to stop stuttering. She was an Uchiha!

"We have to leave in about an hour," Naruto answered. "Why don't you go change and I'll go make some breakfast?"

"Sure," Sasuke said absently. She was trying to do this right.

After snatching the dress from Naruto's hand, she disappeared into her bedroom to get ready for the next forty minutes.

Naruto smiled widely as she left the room. He had dreamed of her accepting him, but in the back of his mind, he always doubted that it would ever happen to a guy like him. He was a loud-mouthed, impulsive, orphaned, homeless, idiotic high school dropout and she was a beautiful, graceful, rich, intelligent college student. At least, he was sexy.

He chuckled at the thought. Sasuke would certainly have something to say to that. Honestly, the reason Naruto had been so attracted to her initially was because she was so unpredictable. When she had first walked into the café, he was sure she was just another stuck up snob, but then she had come back after he had insulted her. He had not expected her to come back and even less so to be so cordially afterwards.

She had been a puzzle for him. The way she presented herself and the way she truly was inside were so different that he had wanted to figure her out. Once he had realized just how sweet and caring she really was underneath all her attitude, he was mesmerized.

He knew he was a lucky man to be going out with her, but he wanted to be able to prove to her that he was also a good catch, too. And, the first step was taking her for an amazing first date.

As he started making breakfast, he could not keep himself from humming in happiness. Nothing in his past was bad enough to keep him depressed after today for he would always have this amazing memory even if Sasuke ever broke up with him. Although, he desperately hopped that would never happen.

For now, he would just focus on making this date and this breakfast as perfect as possible. Right now, he was especially grateful that Jiraiya had taken him in all those years ago. He had taught him how to cook and so much more. If it weren't for Jiraiya, Naruto would never have had the chance to meet a wonderful girl like Sasuke and be stable enough in his life to date her.

After half an hour, he had made one of the most fancy breakfasts Jiraiya had taught him. He placed it out elaborately on the counter and then waited anxiously for Sasuke to finish getting ready. He really could not wait to see her in that dress. Sasuke was cute, but not overly feminine, so he did not get to see her in dresses too often, well ever really.

Once again, she had surprised him with her compliance about wearing the dress and the swimsuit yesterday. When he had seen her in that swimsuit, there was no way he could forget about her now; he was absolutely mesmerized by her beauty.

"Naruto," Sasuke called softly from behind him as she entered the room.

When Naruto turned around, he saw Sasuke standing there looking more beautiful than he had imagined was possible. The lavender dress looked stunning on her body. To add to the look, she had even put on makeup and slightly curled her hair. Now, he felt so underdressed in his black slacks and orange button up shirt.

"Wow," he breathed. "You look amazing."

Sasuke smirked through her blush. "Isn't that kind of self gratification since you were the one who picked out this dress?"

"I did, didn't I? I am so awesome!" Naruto bragged.

"Oh? And how did you get so adept at picking out women's clothing?" Sasuke inquired. "Have you been examining women's bodies with that perverted uncle of yours?"

Naruto gulped. There was no way he could tell her that she was right. Jiraiya often bought … er brought nude models over to the apartment they had shared in order to examine their bodies for … research for his porn comics. "No," he squeeked.

Sasuke glared at him. "No more … research, and I use that term loosly, with your uncle or you won't have eyes to look at anything anymore."

"Yyyyyyyeeesss~s, ma'am," Naruto stuttered and held his hands up in a surrendering position. One thing he had not thought about was the kind of scary power she would have over him when she looked this beautiful. It was hard for him to think straight let alone come up with a witty reply.

"Good. Now, what did you make for breakfast?" Sasuke asked as she pushed past the still scared stiff Naruto.

After a quick breakfast, Naruto drove the two of them to the dance studio where they would have their lesson. Their dance teacher seemed crazy dressed in a green leotard, but he was certainly an effective teacher, although Naruto was a horrible student. It took Naruto much longer than Sasuke to learn the different steps, but once he did, he was just as good as her.

Even though they had fun learning the dance, it was not very romantic, which was fine with Sasuke. It was hard for her to wrap her head around the idea of dating Naruto or anyone really. The laid back attitude of their lesson and the craziness of the instructor helped her feel so comfortable that she did not have the opportunity to feel awkward.

Before she knew it, their lesson was over. They had learned some basic moves for five different dances, which their instructor assured them was enough to be able to dance at the club long enough to have fun. At the end of the class, the three of them sat down to relax a while after the exhausting lesson.

"Are you interested in more lessons?" their dance instructor, Lee, asked them as they let their heartbeats slow down.

Naruto looked at Sasuke to allow her to answer. He had only done this for her and so there was no point in continuing if she was not interested. But, if she decided she wanted to take more lessons, he would be fine with that. It was kind of fun, though not enough to continue without Sasuke because it was only really fun because of her.

"I am out of school for the rest of the month, so I suppose I have time," Sasuke said slowly, "But, I don't know how long I will be able to continue with the lessons after I have gone back to school next semester. What about your work, Naruto?"

"Don't worry about that," Naruto said dismissively with a wave of his hand. "There are plenty of employees that can run the café and Jiraiya has already practically forced me to take a break for the holiday."

"Great!" Lee exclaimed. "Naruto, you have my number. Just call me when you are ready to schedule your next lesson."

Naruto agreed and then he and Sasuke left after a quick 'goodbye.'

The rest of the night was a blur of music and movement. Sasuke would not remember the specific songs or dances of that night, but she had had fun. She still believed Naruto was a complete pervert, but he was a sweet pervert at least.

Naruto drove her to her apartment at the end of the night and walked her up to her door. Sasuke had to admit she found it a little strange that he was acting so sweet and thoughtful. She almost missed his crazy, idiotic antics that typically characterized their time together.

However, there were certainly benefits to being with the sweet Naruto. In front of her door, Naruto had grabbed her hand, kissed it and then moved in to kiss her on the lips. It had been strange and happened so fast, that Sasuke stumbled into her apartment barely registering what had just happened.

With the haze in her mind, Sasuke was only able to coherently recognize one thing: she was happy.

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


	10. Lords a Leaping

Wow, a lot of people are still reviewing. Thank you so much!

To Anata Kiyoshi: Thanks for the review. I really appreciate my repeat reviewers. I hope the following chapters can stay up to standard.

To Mikishi sensei: Thanks for the great review. I am honored. I try to think a lot about just the things that shaped the male sasuke's life and then how that would affect a female with a similar personality. Sometimes, I don't always know how accurate it is, but at least it can make sense in the story.

P.S. I looked at your stories. They are good, but I feel like they are just beginning. Can't wait to see where they go.

To Emirri: I love Naruto at the end of Chapter 8. I just think he really gets a chance to shine and I really get to show him as the hero of the story. In chapter 9, I just kind of skim past Sasuke's reaction because honestly I don't think it would be that big of a thing for her.

To Vongola Maelstrom: I hope the updates are living up to your expectations. Thanks for the review!

To JSinuYasha: I am glad you like this story. I was hoping people would give it a chance. I know not a lot of people like femsasu and I know the 12 days of Christmas thing can be a little cheesy, but I'm happy with how it turned out in the end.

To MagicFear: I think I would like to do a spin off and I hope it will give you lots to read. :)

To Touketsu HeratsuandNai Homare: Thanks for the support! I don't think I will switch the genders. Personally, I don't like femnaru because I think it is too easy for Naruto to come across as a blond airhead, although I know it can be done right.

To Still Not Dead Yet: I really like giving my characters flaws (I hope that doesn't sound bad) because I think it sucks people in more than just one dimensional good guys. As for Jiriya, I just love him. If I do do a spin off, I really want to do more with him because he is just so fun to write about. As always, thank you for your fabulous reviews. You always give me a lot to think about.

This chapter gave me the biggest problem. I must have changed the gift four or five times before I settled on one that I really like. I hope you guys like it too.

**Ten Lords a Leapin'**

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

Squeek.

As Sasuke walked into her kitchen that morning, she heard a strange squeeking sound. "Where is that coming from?" she mumbled as she walked around her apartment. It did not seem to be coming from any of the appliances in either the kitchen or the living room. She wiggled all the furniture, but the squeeking was not coming from any of it. As she walked around, it seemed to be coming from outside of the apartment.

Cautiously, she approached the front door. This had Naruto written all over it. She had thought about researching the twelve days of Christmas last night to see what she might be in for today, but she had been too tired after all the dancing. Now, she was regretting that decision.

She unlocked the front door and rested her hand on the knob. What day was it today and what stupid thing went along with it? Let's see. Yesterday she had gotten … nine dresses, so today was number ten.

Her family had celebrated Christmas, but it had never been a huge part of her life. She had some knowledge of Christmas tales and traditions, but she was nowhere near an expert. Why could she not remember the stupid song?

"Would … *pant* you … *pant* open the … *pant*pant* DOOR?" Naruto shouted from the other side of the door.

Sasuke frowned, but opened the door anyway. There in front of her apartment was Naruto jumping up and down on a trampoline.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked in a monotone voice. This was not the most embarrassing thing he had done, so she was not as surprised as she could have been if this had happened two weeks ago.

"I … (jump) *pant* am … (jump) *pant* leapin'?" Naruto spit out slowly.

"Why?"

"I … (jump) *pant* …"

"Stop! Just stop!" Sasuke yelled and reached out to grab Naruto's arms to force him to stop jumping. She sighed. "Go sit on the couch. I'll get the trampoline."

Naruto was panting hard, but he was smiling brightly. When Sasuke let go of him, he walked quickly into her apartment. Sasuke sighed and shook her head at Naruto's antics, but smiled slightly as she rolled the trampoline into the hallway of her apartment. She closed and locked the door behind her.

She stared at the trampoline as she walked down the hallway. This should be an interesting explanation. At least, it was not something that she would have to move out of her apartment if the neighbors saw it.

"So," she started as she rounded the couch to face Naruto, "What is this one supposed to be?" She sat down in the chair next to the couch and waited for his explanation, which would no doubt be something stupid but that she would find oddly romantic.

He breathed deeply a few more times before responding.

"To my breath *pant* taking true love,

On the tenth day of Christmas,

My true love gave to me

Ten lords a leapin'"

Sasuke furrowed her brow. "Explain."

"Well," he said thoughtfully, "I thought about what to give you for the ten lords, but then I decided I really did NOT want ten strange guys prancing around my girlfriend. That did not seem like a smart thing to do."

Sasuke snorted. "Because your other nine gifts were so intelligent."

"Shut up, you jerk," Naruto chuckled. "I was trying to be nice. If you want, I can call up ten male strippers Jiraiya knows. They can be here in ten minutes tops."

"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, IDIOT!" Sasuke yelled and punched Naruto in the arm.

"Ow … geez … I was only joking," Naruto whined as he rubbed the bruise forming on his arm. "I want to be the only lord in your life," Naruto proclaimed with a huge smile and an extravagant bow.

Sasuke smirked a smirk that was _almost_ a smile. Naruto was so stupid, but there was definitely a strangely sweet method behind his madness. "And, the trampoline?" Sasuke teased.

Naruto's face morphed into his stupid looking thinking face. "The idea of 'leaping' around seemed kind of difficult to do in your small walkway outside your apartment, so a trampoline seemed to be the only way to keep 'leaping' for a long period of time."

Sasuke could not hold back her laughter this time. Naruto was just so … Naruto. Only he could make such an idiotic thing seem wise in some twisted way.

Naruto chuckled lightly as he rubbed the back of his head. He liked hearing Sasuke laugh. It was such a rare sound to hear from her, but he hoped he could change that. None of his friends would probably believe it, but part of the reason he acted so silly was just to get her to laugh.

After a minute more of laughing, Sasuke yawned. "Coffee!" she commanded softly.

Naruto jumped up off the couch with a salute. "Yes, ma'am." Sasuke swatted him on the back one more time as he walked away towards the kitchen.

Sasuke took over his spot on the couch once he had left the room. It was warm. She was glad he had made a total idiot of himself this morning because she had been worried that things would be awkward between them after the date last night. There was still a comfortable vibe between them that Sasuke was afraid they would lose, but she found that she actually felt more comfortable with him now.

However, she might have felt a little different if she knew how Naruto was feeling in the kitchen. Once again, his head was in the freezer. How could Sasuke wear something with so little fabric when it was so cold outside?

When she had opened the door wearing a thin navy tank top and short navy boxers, his heart started racing for a reason that had nothing to do with jumping on the trampoline. He had thought it would be easier to be around Sasuke without getting excited now that they were dating, but man, was he wrong.

Now, it was ten times worse. He was able to be close to her and maybe kiss her occasionally, but if he took it any further, he would blow everything. It was like having a huge bowl of ramen sitting right in front of him without being able to eat it.

Eventually, he pulled his head out of the freezer with a sigh. He had better start making coffee or Sasuke would get suspicious. Quickly, he walked over and opened the cupboard that contained all the ingredients he would need. Over time, Sasuke had bought all of the different coffee types, appliances, and extras from his café, so her cabinet looked just like his shelves back at the café.

What kind of coffee should he make?

It would depend on what she would be doing today? He had not really planned anything for today except the trampoline bit. "Hey, Sasuke," he called from the kitchen, "you have any plans for today?"

Naruto heard her scoff from the other room. "Nothing crazy planned for today?"

"Nope!"

"Well, I'll probably just go to the mall to do some last minute Christmas shopping, then," she explained.

"Mind if I tag along?"

…

"Sasuke?"

"I … I have to get your present there, too," she said almost too quietly for him to hear.

Naruto flushed. "You haven't gotten me a gift yet. I'm hurt, especially after all the planning I put into your Christmas gift this year," he whined teasingly.

"Shut up!" she yelled. "Maybe I just won't get you anything!"

"Sorry, sorry," Naruto said, trying to pacify her and hide his laughter which would certainly not help the situation. "How 'bout I meet you in the mall after an hour?"

"… Fine." 

He chuckled quietly. Sasuke was just so adorable … at least he thought so. "Alright," he said to himself. "The mall. She'll need plenty of caffeine, maybe something with a little bit of cinnamon and ginger to get her in the holiday mood."

Once he got the coffee started, he went over to the fridge to grab some ingredients for an omelette. He was fairly certain Sasuke would have never eaten breakfast if he did not force her to eat something with her coffee when she came to the café in the morning.

After a pleasant breakfast, Naruto left the apartment with plans to meet Sasuke in the food court at the mall in an hour.

At the mall, Sasuke wandered around aimlessly. What could she possibly get Naruto that could ever compare to what he had given her: love? She basically already knew what she was going to get for everyone else. As a type A personality, she had made her list months ago, but could not do the actual shopping until she was on winter break from her classes. Originally, she had just put 'ramen' down for Naruto, but now that seemed so inadequate no matter how much he claimed he loved it.

She walked past the bookstore … Naruto wasn't really a book person. She walked past the clothing stores … that did not really seem good enough. She walked past the Bed&Bath store … Naruto really didn't seem like the type of guy to take baths. She walked past the lingere store … *blush* she was _really_ not ready for that. Finally, she walked past a Build'a'Bear shope … which seemed strangely interesting.

Slowly, she meandered into the store. As she looked around, her eyes locked on a fox plushie. It's face reminded her of Naruto. She picked it up gingerly.

"May I help you," a sales associate said behind her.

Sasuke turned around quickly. "I would like to buy this one," Sasuke said simply.

"Alright," the person answered back politely. "Come over here and decide what message you would like to put inside."

"Message?"

The sales person picked up a little red heart. "Every animal has a recorder in it that is activated by pressure. You can record your message over here. What do you want to say?"

"… I want to say …"

~*A*N*G*E*L*~

Alright, so, I think I will be doing a spin off. I will probably be taking a break for a few days after Christmas, but I definitely want to have the spin off up before New Year's because I want to write about the party I hinted at in chapter … (looks it up) six.


	11. Pipers Piping

To R.S. Salvatore: Thank you for the review. I have pretty much decided to do a spinoff, so I hope it will be enjoyable.

To Anata Kiyoshi: … I don't know if I trust Naruto bungee jumping … I don't think he would survive to finish the last two days. Lol Thanks for the review!

To Still Not Dead Yet: Yeah, the fox theme popped up. I usually don't like to do that too much because apart from the kyubi, there is no tie to Naruto and foxes. It doesn't make sense to tie Naruto to a fox when there is no Kyubi in an AU story, but honestly I could not think of something else. I knew I wanted to do a build-a-bear thing because of the message, so I looked at the build-a-bear website for a while and honestly I could not think of what other animal would make sense.

Anyway, thank you for your reviews as always. I always look forward to what you will think of each chapter.

**Eleven Pipers Piping**

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

*beep*beep*

It took a while for Sasuke to realize that it was her own alarm clock that was making the strange sound. Even though it had only been a few days since she had used her alarm clock, it felt like so long. The past few days felt like an eternity. She had changed so much; she had transformed into a very different person. Everything around her seemed a little different now that she had a boyfriend.

A boyfriend. It was such a strange concept to grasp. Although things felt different, better, between her and Naruto, it was not like they were different people now that they had a different label for each other, but, at the same time, Sasuke felt different.

Now, when she woke up, she wanted, expected to see Naruto for breakfast. She was so used to Naruto waking her up with his crazy stunts that she did not like having to wake up to some electronic hunk of metal.

Yesterday, after a great day at the mall where Naruto had only got them kicked out of one of the shops, they had agreed to hang out at Naruto's apartment above the café for Christmas Eve since it would be closed for the holiday. Naruto decided it would be fun to bring a bunch of their friends over as well, which meant they both had spent the rest of the night calling people to see who was available and inviting them.

She had set her alarm for 6am in order to be able to get everything done that she wanted to get done before the party tonight. Although, at this very moment, as she lay under the warm covers of her bed, she could not help thinking about just staying in bed all day; however, she had too much to do and was too much of a perfectionist to allow herself to take time sleeping that she could be using to make sure everything was done perfectly.

So, with one more deep relaxing breath in her warm cocoon, she rolled out of bed to start the day. The first thing on her list: coffee, lots and lots of coffee. She had to admit that Naruto probably would not have had the chance to get to know her if he had not made the best coffee she could find in the city. Of course, that was not the only reason she liked him, but it sure was a nice bonus.

Over the years, Naruto had taught her a lot of tricks for making coffee. In hindsight, all the times he had come over to her apartment to teach her were probably not just friendly visits on his part. Actually, a lot of the little things Naruto had done around her over the years made a lot more sense, like letting her study in the café after closing when he was cleaning.

Sasuke snorted at the memory. That was the first time she had discovered how much of a pervert he could be. She had been so busy studying that she did not notice when the café had closed. After some unknown amount of time, she felt Naruto's presence behind her. When she whirled around, she found him looking down the front of her shirt.

"What the hell are you staring at?" Sasuke asked with a scowl.

"Uh…" Naruto had trailed off with a dumb look on his face. "I … uh … was just wondering what you were reading so intently?"

"Of course," she shot back. "Did you see anything interesting?"

"Absolutely!" he said vehemently.

"Pervert!" Sasuke yelled, punching him in the gut. Then, she quickly gathered her things and stormed out, leaving Naruto curled up on the floor clutching his stomach.

The ding from the coffee machine tore her out of the memory. Sasuke smiled as she poured her coffee into a mug. Despite having caught him doing perverted things around her, Sasuke knew he was a respectable guy, otherwise, she would have strangled him with one of his perverted outfits.

With a contented sigh, she sat down on one of the barstools for her counter and sipped her coffee. It was good, but still no where near as good as Naruto's. He would have to have him make her some when she saw him later. She smiled. It was nice knowing she had someone to go to for things she could not do herself, not that she would ever admit it to anyone, especially Naruto.

For now, she would just sit here and let the caffeine do its job. Sometimes, she wished she could just sit down with a warm cup of coffee forever. And, for a while she did just that, until the sound of the doorbell startled her awake again.

With a groan, she looked at her clock to realize it was still fairly early. Who would be at her door this early on Christmas Eve? When the doorbell started ringing over and over and over and over, Sasuke decided only one person she knew could be this annoying this early in the morning. Curse Naruto for being a morning person. Hadn't they agreed to meet this evening?

She threw on a robe over her pajamas and then trudged groggily down to the front door.

"What?" she snapped as she opened to door to reveal … not Naruto.

"Do you always answer the door so aggressively?" the man at the door asked in amusement.

"What are you doing here, Kakashi?" Sasuke snapped.

"Can't an uncle visit his niece on Christmas Eve?" he teased her.

"Where's Aunt Obito?" Sasuke countered. Kakashi had married her father's sister Obito before Sasuke had even been born, so Kakashi had been her annoying old uncle for her whole life. However, usually, Aunt Obito had him relatively under control.

"She has already gone over to the Uchiha mansion to set up for Christmas," he explained. "So, I was tasked with bringing you home."

Sasuke froze. "I … was not planning to leave until tomorrow, so I could be home in time for the Christmas dinner," she said stiffly.

"Yeah, yeah, we all know you like to wait to come home until you absolutely have to, but your aunt and I were thinking that maybe we could actually spend the whole holiday together this year," he said in the tone that said he was no longer just joking around.

"Why don't we talk inside? It's getting cold out here in the hallway," he offered softly.

Sasuke moved aside and followed him mechanically into the living room. No. No. NO! She could not go home now. She had plans to be with Naruto tonight and tomorrow morning. It's not that she did not love her brother and aunt and uncle, but she enjoyed her life here as well. Even before Naruto had become her official boyfriend, she liked to hang around her apartment for a few days before heading home in order to do all the things around town with her friends, perhaps especially Naruto, that she did not have time to do during the school year.

"Why do I have to go home early?" Sasuke asked as she sat in the chair across from where her uncle was sitting on the couch.

"Is it such a horrible thought to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with your family," he asked with an eerily neutral voice.

Sasuke was silent for a moment longer before saying, "I already have plans for tonight. As I said, I was not going to go home until tomorrow, so there was no reason not to make plans with my friends."

It was Kakashi's turn to be silent. Sasuke had to greatly resist the urge to flinch under his questioning gaze.

"You know I usually spend the first week after I get out of school with my friends," she continued to break the silence.

"Mmhmm," he grunted. Then he broke out in a disturbingly huge smile. "Why don't you invite your friends to come over to the mansion for tonight?" he suggested.

Sasuke snorted. "No," she said curtly.

"Aww … why can't you be my cute wittle neice who used to insist that the whole family stayed together in the mansion on Christmas eve?"

Sasuke froze. "You know why!" she snapped. "I'll see you tomorrow! Now, get out of my apartment!"

Kakashi sighed. He knew he was pushing it with his last remark, but he had hoped maybe they had finally reached a point where she would be able to handle it. "Maybe it's time to forget about the past," he chided softly. Without another word, he stood up to leave. As he passed Sasuke, he placed a hand softly on her shoulder, but she just moved her shoulder and turned away. "I love you, kiddo," he called from the hallway before leaving the apartment.

Sasuke threw a pillow as hard as she could towards the hallway. Why did this have to happen now? She was finally feeling somewhat happy with her life and now her uncle had to come and remind her of all the skeletons in her past.

Her heart was starting to crumble all over again, but now she had a choice. She could let everything fall apart and lock herself away in her grief like she had done until now or she could take a chance that things were different now with Naruto. Sasuke could never know it at the time, but this would be the defining moment of her life.

However, in the present, all Sasuke could think about was getting away from here. She ran into her room and threw on some jeans and a sweater. Then, she ran out of her apartment in her slippers without even locking the door behind her. Before she could really think about it, Sasuke was pounding on the front door of the café, which was closed for Christmas Eve.

After a minute, her mind cleared a bit and she remembered Naruto telling her about a hidden key somewhere around … ah there it was under the bush. She quickly unlocked the door and rand to the stairs at the back of the café that led to Naruto's apartment on the second floor.

She ran up the stairs and at the top of the stairs, froze. "WHAT DID YOU DO!" Sasuke yelled.

It would have taken a huge shock to break her out of the state she was in and sure enough, Naruto had done just that. Sasuke found Naruto surrounded by white suds that seemed to be covering every inch of the apartment.

"Sasuke!" Naruto gasped. He tried to stand up, but slipped and fell flat on his back with a wheeze.

Sasuke sighed and then carefully inched her way over to Naruto. The floor felt like ice under her feet. "Are you okay, idiot?" she asked as she finally reached him and knelt down next to him.

"Fi~ine," he chocked out. He looked up and gave a half smile with his face covered with bubbles.

Sasuke chuckled lightly and wiped some of the foam off of Naruto's face. "What is all this?" she asked much more quietly this time.

"Day Eleven gone very, very wrong," he said, then blew some bubbles off his mouth.

"*sigh* Explain."

"To my smokin' true love,

On the eleventh day of Christmas,

My true love gave to me

Eleven Pipers Piping."

"Oo~ookay," Sasuke said slowly.

Naruto sighed dramatically. "It was supposed to be eleven bubble pipes that would go off when you walked through the door creating a pretty snow effect, … bu~ut the tubes connecting them kept breaking, the bubbles kept going off on their own, the pipes kept falling, then the bubble stuff got into the vents and everything really started getting bad … ehhehe …"

"Stupid," she chided, but with no real strength to it. She stared at him for a moment and then collapsed on top of him, snuggling into his shoulder.

".," Naruto stuttered, alarmed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said breathily. "Nothing is wrong when I have you."

~*A*N*G*E*L*~

I hope all of you (who celebrate it) have a wonderful Christmas tomorrow!


	12. Drummers Drumming

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Phew. This took me forever to write. It is just after midnight for me and I have just finished a bit too late. Hopefully, most of you will still be asleep dreaming of sugarplums. I am a little sad to see this story end, but I am more happy to see it finished (at least until the sequel).

Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers and to everyone who ever took a peek at my stories! You all make me so happy. I'm honored by your taking the time to ready the stories that I dream up.

**12 Drummers Drumming**

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

Sasuke shot awake. Her heart was racing. She looked around. Monkeys! Monkeys with drums! What was going on! Where was she! Monkeys? Really?

"NAAAARUTO!"

Said man pranced happily into the room and dived onto the bed next to Sasuke. "MERRY CHRISTMAS, MY TRUE LOVE!"

"On the 12th day of Christmas,

My true love gave to me,

Twelve Drummers Drumming!"

Sasuke could barely hear him over the sound of the drums, but she was fairly certain that whatever he had said could not save him from being thrown out the window! She reached to grab the large encyclopedia she kept by her bed to bash Naruto on the head with … only to find it not there. In fact, there was nothing there. Where was her nightstand?

She looked to her side to find that herself in unfamiliar surroundings. Where was she? BoomBoom This was Naruto's apartment. BoomBOomBaNg Why was she …BANGbooM … ugh, she could not think with all the noise!

"NARUTO, TURN OFF THE DRUMS!" With that, she dumped Naruto off the edge of the bed. She jumped up and grabbed the nearest monkey, throwing it across the room towards another monkey. The next few minutes would be forever known as the great monkey massacre of 2010.

Naruto lay traumatized on the floor amongst a sea of fur and metal gears. "..suke … hold on … .stay back … it was a.a.a.a j..ke …"

"Na~aru~utoooo …" Sasuke sang sweetly.

" …"

The adrenaline from her rampage was wearing off, leaving Sasuke surprisingly awake and clear-headed. Suddenly, she was able to remember why it was she was in Naruto's apartment.

Last night after having to face her uncle, she had come looking for Naruto. After the initial shock of finding him in his apartment covered in bubbles, Sasuke had remembered everything that had happened at her apartment, which made her have a sad face that Naurto unfortunately spotted.

After a lot of coaxing on his part, he had finally gotten the gist of the story out of her although he knew there was something that she was hiding. When she was finished explaining, Naruto simply said, "Can you help me clean up this mess?"

Sasuke frowned. That was all he had to say? She scowled for a moment longer before deciding that she did not really mind his reaction. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realized how out of character it was for him, which probably meant he had something up his sleeve. "Sure," she mumbled finally.

They cleaned in silence for a while, occasionally glancing at each other. It took forever for them to clean up the mess. It felt even longer with the silence, but eventually they got everything bubble free.

"Look at that," Naruto said strangely calm.

"What?" Sasuke asked confused.

"After cleaning up all the mess, it looks even better than before," he continued softly. "I'm just like that."

"Huh? Naruto?"

"Shh … just listen … my life was pretty good when I was a young guy, but then became a huge mess. It seemed like it could never be clean again, but with a little help from Jiraiya, I think I became an even better person than I was before everything bad happened.

"I don't know all the messy things that happened in your past, but even the dirtiest pasts can be cleaned with a little work. Let me help you!" His smile was so bright after that.

Sasuke had been stunned. The warm feeling she had received from his words yesterday was the only thing stopping her from inflicting serious bodily harm to him in the present.

Deep breath.

"This better be the last stupid prank you have planned for the holidays or you won't make it to 2011. Got it?" Sasuke growled.

"*gulp* Yes, I promise," he said pathetically. He smiled carefully. "Would you like breakfast now ?" he asked cautiously.

Sasuke smiled back at him. "Coffee?"

Naruto chuckled. "Of course."

Sasuke held out her hand to Naruto. Naruto grabbed it and pulled himself up. They walked hand in hand to the Naruto's small dining room, where Naruto had set up a beautiful Christmas breakfast.

"Sometimes I still have trouble believing you can actually cook well," Sasuke commented absently.

"Hey!" Naruto snapped. "I am a great chef!"

"Uh huh," she replied skeptically. "And, how many things did you burn or blow up before you became a good chef?"

"Eh hehe … nothing … important," Naruto mumbled.

"Sure. I'll just ask Jiraiya when he gets back in January," she teased.

Naruto just pouted at that. "Just enjoy your food!" he huffed.

With a gentle smile, Sasuke picked up her fork and began eating the pancakes set out for her. It was nice having someone there when you woke up and someone to eat breakfast with.

Shortly after she and Naruto had finished cleaning the apartment, some of their friends came over and they had danced to Christmas music, eaten tons of Christmas goodies, and watched a bunch of Christmas movies. Despite there not being that many people as most of their friends had already gone home for Christmas, it was a great party.

After everyone else had gone home, Sasuke and Naruto sat cuddled on the couch watching some lifetime Christmas movie. Sasuke could not really remember the end of the movie, so she figured she must have fallen asleep sometime in the middle. Naruto must have put her in his bed sometime in the middle of the night. She was even more surprised to see he had time to make breakfast for them. He probably did not even get as much sleep as she did and she only got maybe four hours.

"MM … ginger," Sasuke said around a mouthful of pancake.

"Yup. I thought it would make them more festive," Naruto announced proudly. "Is it good?"

"Fishing for more compliments?" Sasuke smirked.

Naruto stuck out his tongue at her. "Don't I at least get a 'thank you,' meanie?" he whined.

Sasuke looked down at her plate quietly.

"Sasuke?" Silence. "Sa~asuke?"

Without warning, Sasuke leaned across the table and pecked Naruto on the cheek. "Thank you," she whispered into his ear.

This caused Naruto to drop his fork on his plate and blush brightly. He never would have thought that Sasuke would actually take the initiative to kiss him, at least not anytime soon. Wow. He was so lucky to be dating an amazing girl like Sasuke. Of course, he would not tell her that anytime soon because it would just inflate her ego even more.

"Wow?" Sasuke asked, blushing behind her triumphant smirk.

There was an awkward silence between them for what felt like forever. Eventually, Naruto's phone broke the silence. Looking around, Naruto spotted his phone not to far away on the kitchen counter. He reached over and grabbed the phone, then sat back down and stared at Sasuke as he answered the phone. "Hello," he said into the phone. A pause. "Who?" Another pause. He frowned and looked strangely at his phone. "It's for you," he said, holding the phone out to Sasuke.

With a quizzical look, Sasuke gently took the phone from Naruto. "Hello?" she asked.

"Sasuke, Merry Christmas."

"Kakashi?" she said in confusion. "Why are you calling me on Naruto's phone?"

"I tried calling your phone several times already, but you didn't pick up," he explained.

"How did you know I would be over here? How do you even have this number?" she grumbled. She had been having such a nice, albeit slightly disturbing, morning with Naruto and he just had to call and interrupt.

"You have taken us to the café a couple times, Sasuke. I could not help but notice that you were pretty friendly with your waiter, so I did a little research on him," Kakashi explained cheerfully.

"Kakashi! What did you do?" Sasuke asked angrily. It was not exactly the right thing to ask, but at the moment it was all she could think of saying. She was fuming. After all this time, she had thought he had finally backed off a bit from his overprotective ways. Oh no. If Kakashi knew about Naruto, then there was no doubt in her mind that Aunt Obito and her brother knew, too. She groaned.

"Calm down," Kakashi chimed. "I just did a little background check and of course, a smidge of surveillance."

"KAKASHI!" she yelled into the phone. "You had no right to do that! I can take care of myself!"

"Course you can, sweetie, we were just wondering who your new friend was," said the voice of her Aunt. "Don't worry. I didn't let him do anything obtrusive to your little friend and he is under strict orders to leave you alone to make your own choices about him."

That helped ... a little. "Aunt Obito, how could you let him do that?"

"Well, it wasn't your uncle who did the background check. It was your brother," Obito explained.

That was not good. "What did he say?" Sasuke asked apprehensively.

"Oh, nothing," Kakashi replied sweetly. "Although, he did ask if Naruto would be interested in coming to Christmas Dinner with you."

"I … don't think … that would be a good idea," Sasuke said slowly. It was never a good thing when her brother wanted to talk with one of her friends, not that she had that many thanks to him. All through middle school and high school, Itachi would 'invite' her friends to their mansion whenever he felt 'the relationship was becoming serious.' A third of her friends never made it through the front door, half wished they hadn't, but the people who survived had become her good friends, though they would forever be traumatized by the experience.

And, that was just with friends. She had no idea what her brother would do if he found out that she had actually agreed to become Naruto's girlfriend. Plus, Naruto was too idiotic to actually behave in the appropriate, respectable way that might ensure his survival.

"Oh, come now," her Aunt chided. "If you are spending Christmas morning with your friend, I'm sure he is free to come over with you later."

"That's not … I don't think … I don't know if he has any plans for tonight," Sasuke scrambled for an excuse. "I did not think to ask since I was planning to leave this afternoon."

"Are you talking about me?" Naruto whispered. He had been hanging onto Sasuke's every word and expression and he knew something was going on.

Sasuke tried to wave her hand at him to tell him to shut up, but of course, Naruto did not pay attention to it. Naruto started shooting out questions. "What's happening? Who is that? What do they want?"

"Nothing. Be quiet," she tried to whisper to him without her Aunt and Uncle hearing, but she was not that lucky.

"What did your friend say?" Obito asked.

"Why don't you put him on? I'll ask him," Kakashi interjected.

"No," Sasuke snapped.

"Why not?" Obito asked. At the same time, Kakashi said with an evil chuckle, "Are you trying to hide him from us?"

"No … Just …"

"She wouldn't do that, honey," her Aunt chided Kakashi over the phone.

"Of course, she would," Kakashi countered.

"It's none of your …" Sasuke tried to interrupt.

"Don't be so hard on her, honey. She's a good girl," Obito continued, completely ignoring Sasuke.

"I know she is, which is all the more reason she is not a good judge of character," Kakashi said.

"Hey, that's not …"

"Well, that's true," her Aunt said, again seeming not to hear Sasuke's protest.

"Exactly, which is why we should meet this Naruto guy in person," Kakashi explained.

"GUYS!" Sasuke yelled. "Stop it! It is none of your business who I am friend's with!" Before her relatives could have a chance to protest, Sasuke hung up the phone. "I can't believe those two sometimes," Sasuke muttered. After a moment more of fuming, she looked up to see Naruto staring at her curiously.

"What was all that?" he asked slowly.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it," Sasuke said dismissively.

"That was about me, wasn't it?" he continued.

Sasuke groaned. Why did he have to choose now to be so very smart and perceptive?

"Just tell me. Girlfriends should always be honest with their boyfriends," he chided with a chuckle.

That earned him a glare. After all the stunts he pulled, what right did he have to tell her how to be a good girlfriend? But, she knew he was right. "My uncle invited you to dinner at my house," she answered carefully. "But, I really don't think that would be a good idea."

"Why not?" Naruto asked grumpily.

"I may not be an expert on relationships, but even I know you don't bring your boyfriend home to meet the family after just three days of dating," Sasuke shot back.

"Well," Naruto said thoughtfully, "I'd say we have practically been in a relationship for at least two years now."

"What are you saying?" Sasuke snapped, with a slight flush appearing on her cheeks.

"We've known each other for a long time, Sasuke," he explained softly. "Besides, I have already met your family a couple times when they come to visit you. I'm sure it wouldn't be that bad to have dinner with them."

Sasuke snorted at that. "You have no idea what they can be like to my friends. I don't even know what they will do if they find out you are my boyfriend."

"If?" Naruto echoed with a frown.

"Really?" she scoffed. "You want to have this argument, now? On Christmas?"

"Well, were you planning to tell your family about me?" he asked.

"Naruto, my family is not the kind of people who would be excited to meet my boyfriends. I've told you before how overprotective they can be of me," Sasuke explained. "You've heard of dads threatening their daughters boyfriends with guns?" A nod. "My brother prefers poisons that are excrutiating and completely untraceable." A gulp. "And, he is one of the most powerful men in the country at the moment. The police would not dare investigate him, let alone arrest him."

"Sasuke," Naruto said with a nervous chuckle, "Stop trying to scare me into not coming. I'm not afraid. Believe it!"

"I wish I was exaggerating," Sasuke muttered.

"*gulp* … I'll … I'll just have to get them to like me," Naruto argued.

"Naruto …" "No," Naruto interrupted. "I want to do this, Sasuke. We … this isn't just a casual thing between us. I'm really serious about you and I want your family to know that."

After a long, tense silence, Sasuke finally murmured, "Your funeral, idiot."

"Great! Let's eat!" Naruto exclaimed and then continued to shovel food into his mouth.

Gingerly, Sasuke continued eating as well. She was secretly happy at Naruto's determination to meet her family, but she could not help feeling apprehensive about the dinner. A guy from her high school had come over to her house once just to work on a project and her brother had sent him home with a psychological break down. The boy had spent the next month in a psychiatric facility. She had no idea what he would do to an actual boyfriend.

After a calm breakfast from that point on, Naruto dragged Sasuke into the living room, where last night they had set up and decorated a small, fake Christmas tree; however, last night, Sasuke did not remember there being a small, brightly wrapped box sitting under it. "What's that?" she asked in surprise.

"You're gift!" he proclaimed with a huge grin.

"Naruto," she said slowly. "You promised no more crazy pranks. Besides, I thought you already gave me all my gifts over the past twelve days?" 

"Well, that was just my wooing!" he explained, earning a snort from Sasuke. "This is your real Christmas gift." He picked up the package and held it up to her excitidely. "Open it! Open it!"

Sasuke gave the package a skeptical look.

"It's not anything bad," Naruto pouted. "I promise!"

There seemed to be sincerity in his voice, but she still eyed him cautiously. Carefully, she took the present from him. Naruto smiled when she took the present. Then, he pranced over and collapsed on the couch with a puff.

"Come here," he said, patting his lap.

Sasuke shot him one last suspicious glare before climbing onto his lap. Snuggling was another thing she thought she would never do, but now found quite pleasant. After getting comfy, she turned the present over and slowly started undoing the tape.

To his credit, Naruto waited almost a whole minute before exploding. "Argh, I hate when people open presents like that. Just tear it open!"

"It's my gift! I'll open it however I want," she snapped back at him.

Naruto puffed his cheeks out in silent protest and waited as calmly as he could for Sasuke to finish _neatly_ unwrapping her gift.

"Finally," Naruto shouted as Sasuke opened the wrapping to reveal the cardboard box underneath.

Slowly, Sasuke lifted the lid of the box to reveal a rather large something covered in white tissue paper. Peeling back the paper revealed a porceilin face staring up at her. Quickly, she pulled back the rest of the paper to reveal an angel doll. "It's beautiful," she whispered.

The doll had short curly black hair and black marble eyes on its pale white face. It was wearing a silk white dress lined with fake fur and embroidered with sparkling beads. The wings were made from pure white feathers and studded with clear crystals that shone in the light.

"It reminded me of you. It's so beautiful, but it is cold and has an expressionless face," Naruto said softly.

Sasuke looked at him on the verge of a glare. She was not sure whether she should be insulted or flattered. For now, she would just see what he said next and then determine if she was going to hit him or not.

"You look at this doll and can't help but think how beautiful it is," Naruto continued recognizing the warning. "When you look at the beauty of this doll, I want you to know that that is how beautiful I think you are. But, the longer you stare at it, the sadder it makes you. All that beauty, but no life. It can't taste the sweetness of chocolate or the warmth of a hug. You have the beauty and the joy of life. I hope you can always remember how unique and precious life is. Your life is especially precious to me."

Who would have thought the idiot could make such a moving speech?

Naruto stared down at her with so much sincerity that Sasuke could barely breathe. A tear leaked out and trailed down her face. He reached up and wiped it gently off her face.

She leaned into his hand.

"Idiot," Sasuke mumbled with a sob.

Instead of replying, Naruto leaned down and they shared their first realy kiss. Sasuke's tears brushed across their joined lips, then trailed down Sasuke's throat, bringing some saliva with it. It was absolutely disgusting and absolutely wonderful. It ended after just a moment, but it would be remembered forever.

"Thank you," Sasuke whispered. She looked down at her lap, where the doll was still lying in its box. "Suddenly, my gift seems so inadequate."

"You got me a gift!" He shouted cheerfully. "What is it? What is it? What is it?"

Sasuke chuckled. It was amazing how quickly Naruto could go from a sweet, mature man to a loud, silly little boy. "Calm down. It's still at my apartment," she replied.

"Go get it!" Naruto said before he could think about what he was saying and what it would mean.

"You want me to leave?" Sasuke teased. "You would rather have your gift than be with me?"

"That's not what I meant," Naruto pouted.

"Naruto?"

"Hm?"

"Are you sure you want to go to my house for dinner tonight?" 

Naruto cupped her face in his hand once again. "Absolutely. Believe it!" 

"I better call and tell my brother that you are coming, then," Sasyuke said more to herself than to Naruto. "I guess I should head back to my apartment to pack and get ready to leave. I'll call my brother when I get back to my apartment. You should get ready, too. Make yourself presentable." 

"Hey!" Naruto protested.

"You want to come? Then, you have to put up with everything that goes along with coming, including getting dressed appropriately," Sasuke lectured.

"Fine," Naruto pouted, "But, I want to open my gift before we leave!"

After agreeing, Sasuke went back to her apartment, carefully carrying her new doll with her. She walked right into her apartment, remembering that she had forgotten to lock it yesterday when she had ran over to the café. "First, I should find my cell phone and call brother."

After a few minutes searching for it, she found the cell phone on her desk under a couple stray pieces of paper. She stared at the phone, then took a deep breath and dialed the number. The ringing seemed to echo in her head ominously.

"Sasuke?" her brother's voice sounded in her ear. "What are you calling for? You are still coming home for Christmas dinner tonight, aren't you?" 

"Of course, brother," she said softly. "I would never miss Christmas dinner with the family. Um … brother?"

"Yes?" his voice indicated that he suspected something from the way she had called him 'brother.'

"You think we have enough food for one more?"

…

"Brother?" 

"You are bringing Naruto?"

"… yes."

"I see."

"Brother?"

"Will he be driving with you or separately?"

"I … I don't know. We haven't talked about that yet."

"Why don't you drive together in your car? He can bring an overnight bag and sleep in one of the guest bedrooms tonight."

"Brother!" Sasuke was surprised. Why on earth would he actually suggest letting a man stay at their house. "What do you have planned for Naruto?" she growled.

"Nothing much," her brother said slyly. "I just want to … talk to him."

"Brother! You will be nice to him!"

…

"You will be polite and respectful and you will not traumatize him at all!"

"That is hardly fair, little sister." 

"Don't even think about it, brother. I swear, if you do anything to him, I will never come home again!"

"… Does he mean that much to you? More than your family?"

" … I love him, brother," Sasuke admitted quietly. "He has healed my heart and if you hurt him, my heart may never be whole again."

"Very well, I will treat him with the utmost respect for wining the love of my dear little sister. I will see you soon. Goodbye," Itachi agreed, then hung up the phone.

Sasuke let out a huge breath. That went better than she expected. So, she had said it. She had admitted to her family that she loved Naruto. Now, she just had to admit it to Naruto. After a moment, she dialed Naruto's number to tell him about what had happened.

About fifteen minutes after telling Naruto about the new plan, Sasuke heard him knocking on the door. Quickly, she rushed to the front door and opened it. "Hi," she greeted absently. "Here." She threw him her keys. "Put your stuff in the back seat of my car. My stuff is already in the trunk." 

"Okay," he agreed, "But, then I want to open my gift." 

"Just go!" she snapped and threw one of her nearby hats at him. He rushed out of the room laughing. It was just so much fun to annoy Sasuke.

After he left, Sasuke opened the hallway door and slowly pulled out the Christmas bag containing Naruto's present. She knew it could never match up to the gift she had been given, but she hoped he would be happy with it. She opened the top and peered inside one last time before Naruto got back.

"Is that it?" Naruto asked from the doorway. "Let me have it!"

Snapping the bag shut, Sasuke turned towards him. "Here," she said, holding the bag out to him. "It's no where near as special as the gift you gave me, but it did make me think of you and … well, just open it."

Naruto gave her a quick smile before ripping all the tissue paper out of the bag. It was a miracle he did not tear the gift to shreds as well. "It's a fox," Naruto said, seemingly happy. He picked the thing up out of the bag. As he grabbed the animal around the middle, he set off the voice recorder in the middle.

"You _are_ my true love, forever!"

Hearing the voice coming from the animal startled Naruto almost more so than the actual words. Sasuke watched apprehensively as Naruto reached down and picked up the fox. He squeezed it again.

"You _are_ my true love, forever!"

"Sasuke," Naruto chocked. "That's your voice."

"Of … of course it is," she said angrily, to hide her embarrassment. "You didn't actually think the stuffed animal was talking to you, did you?"

"Do you mean it?" he asked quietly.

" … of course," she answered softly.

That night was a string of crazy familial encounters, wonderful food, embarrassing stories, spectacular Christmas music, and so much more, but the highlight of the day for Naruto would forever be the slightly electronic sound of Sasuke's voice. This was the best Christmas of his life! 

~*A*N*G*E*L*~


End file.
